Dragons in Time
by ksmurf
Summary: Yusuke and the gang head off to recover a mystical power source that was stolen: the Astoria stone. However, in order for the recovery to be a success, they must join forces with a mysterious fighter. Rated T for some language.
1. The Mission

Author Notes: This is my first time writing a fanfic. What happened was that someone took my email and password and deleted this story. Needless to say, I got rid of whatever I wanted to get rid of, changed the password and the email, so that no one can use that account. I created a new account as killermsmurf01224. So now I am reposting the story. Constructive criticism is welcome, but since this story is already completed, nothing is going to change. (However, constructive criticism will help me on the sequel). Please review because how fast I repost the chapters is in direct correlation with how many reviews that I get. 'kays? Enjoy the story. 

Disclaimer: I do not own nor make any attempt to claim any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters as my own. Please don't sue me.

Part One: The Mission:

This is Yusuke Urameshi. He is fourteen years old and is the spirit detective for the planet Earth. After regaining his life he was given the title of 'spirit detective'. Now he tracks down demons that have crossed the boarder into the living world and are causing trouble for the humans. In his most recent mission, Yusuke, along with Botan and Kuwabara, went to save the lovely Yukina, an ice maiden. Having accomplished this mission, Yusuke plans to get some rest, but it won't last very long.

Yusuke was walking in the park. The bright sun was hanging lazily in the sky as clouds slowly made their way across the big ocean of blueness. Settling down on a park bench, he stretched out and said, "Ahh! Finally, a weekend with no missions, no Koenma, no demons, no Botan…" He was just about to go to sleep when he heard, "Yusuke!" Yusuke groaned. "I spoke too soon." 

The little chipper ferry-maiden was floating across the grass on her oar. "Hello Yusuke! Guess what I have for you!"

Yusuke grumbled, "Another mission from Koenma."

"Bingo!" She smiled, "Koenma wants me to bring you to the spirit world so that he can discuss the mission. Come on, let's go!" Botan grabbed his hand and they started to rise from the ground. Soon the world became a lot smaller. Yusuke hung on for dear life. 

"Urameshi! Where do you think you're going?" Yusuke and Botan turned to see the "number one" thug at Yusuke's middle school come running towards them. "This isn't another case is it? 'Cause if it is, I'm going to be a part of it. You weren't thinking of leaving me behind were you? I'm not a baby you know."

Yusuke sighed. "We know you're not a baby. Come on. Grab my foot." Kuwabara grabbed Yusuke's foot and the oar began to rise again. "You're deciding to do this mission even before you know what it entails? Or are you coming along for the ride for another reason." Yusuke grinned, 'Ten to one he's coming along just to see if he can see Yukina.' He watched at Kuwabara yelled back at him, "Are you crazy? I'm doing the mission because I'm bored!" Yusuke replied in an unbelieving voice, "Riiiiiiiiiighhhht."

Botan turned to both of them. "Will you two stop bickering for a bit? You'll need to hold on pretty tight as we go through the tunnel warp. We'll be traveling pretty fast and I wouldn't want either of you to get stuck between dimensions because there's a chance we wouldn't be able to find you again." Both boys nodded and increased the intensity of their grips. "Here we go!"

* * * * *

Aniya made her way back from the Arena. She smiled to herself. 'That was a pretty good day, considering I broke the record for the number of victories in one day and the demons I fought were supposedly the strongest and toughest as they come. I hope they recover and come back for another fight." Turning down a remote dark alley way, she worked her way around dilapidated obstacles, dumpsters, trashcans, the regular card-board boxes, until she found an old metal door. Looking both ways to make sure that no one saw her, she lifted a covered hand and a blue light outlined the door. The door then swung open, only to fall off its rusted hinges. "Damn, I'm going to have to get that door fixed, or find a new place to hang out." Putting the door back on, she raised her hand again and this time the door was outlined in green light, symbolizing that the door was now locked. 

She put her sword on the table nearby and proceeded to take off the outer layer of her armor. "That feels better. I probably should make new armor too because this stuff is getting beaten up." After a couple of months in the Arena, any armor was practically in pieces. Aniya walked over to what was once called  a couch, and dropped onto it. Resting her eyes, she suddenly realized that something was wrong. 'There's something missing. Someone's been here.' She jumped off the couch and used her senses to see if anything was missing. 'Sword…here…armor…here…extra set of black clothes…here… stone…' She trailed off. 'The stone, it's gone!' She looked around for the remainder of a magical presence. There was only one person who could see her hide-out, get in without getting killed, break the code, steal the stone, get out again and leave no trace of a magical presence. 

"Katomi. You are going down."

* * * * *

Yusuke, Botan and Kuwabara arrived at Koenma's palace. They walked through the many rooms, where there were thousands of ogres running around with huge piles of paper work. Kuwabara, who had never been to Koenma's place before, was staring wide-eyed. "Guys…I'm getting the tickle-feeling…really bad…" Botan and Yusuke looked at him and sweat-dropped. Yusuke replied, "Well, this _is_ the spirit world…gee…wonder what kind of people we'll meet there…hmm…spirits maybe?" Kuwabara looked like he was ready to punch him. "It's not funny. It's been a while since I've been around so many demons at the same time. So shut up!"

Botan sighed, "Will you two boys stop fighting already?" They stopped in mid-punch and continued to walk behind Botan. Yusuke noticed something, "Hey, Botan…this isn't the way to Koenma's room." Botan turned and smiled, "Bingo! He's having you meet in a special room this time." Yusuke looked confused but followed the blue-haired ditz. It was a good thing they had Botan to guide them because they would have gotten lost in the maze of hallways that they had to walk down. Both boys were getting tired of walking around when Botan suddenly stopped. "Here it is. Come on, I hope we're not late."

The trio walked in and Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped in their tracks and sweat dropped. "You dragged us all the way to an indoor garden to receive the assignment? Urameshi, I'm not sure about this toddler you accept orders from. I think he might be off his rocker." Kuwabara stopped and started to chuckle, "Off his rocker…toddler…ha, that's funny!"

"I don't think so." Kuwabara turned around to see Koenma floating in mid-air behind him, pacifier and all. He jumped and said hurridly, "I didn't mean it, I was only joking. See it's a joke, it's funny, right?"

Another voice popped out from some bush or tree. "Seems like ugly-face just got stupider."

Kuwabara turned to face the voice, "No one asked you, shorty! And who are you calling ugly and stupid?" Hiei and Kuwabara continued to bicker as Kurama appeared out of the shadows. "Hey Kurama, what's up?" "Nothing much, Yusuke." Koenma came over. "Now that we're almost all here, I can begin to talk about the mission."

Yusuke did a double take, "Wait…what do you mean, 'almost' all here? I count five, and that's all there is…five."

Koenma nodded, "But this time, Botan won't be going with you on this mission. This mission is different and will require some outside assistance, that's why I've contacted someone to help you. Now we have to wait for him to get here and while we wait, I'm going to give you some background information for the mission."

"Kuwabara, Hiei, cut it out. Okay, Koenma, let's hear it."

"A long time ago, there were demons and humans living together on the earth. As you can guess, this caused a lot of problems because the demons and the humans rarely saw eye to eye and so there were many fights. Eventually the demons became fed up with the humans and decided that they should just kill them whenever they wanted. There was one demon, Sukeisa, who wanted to end all human freedom. In short, he wanted to take over the world."

Yusuke snorted, "Okay…what demon have we met that _hasn't_ wanted to take over the world."

Kuwabara turned, "Shut up, Urameshi!"

Koenma continued, "You see, Sukeisa was different. He had extraordinary control over his spirit energy. He had so much control that he was able to use it in special ways. With his magical powers as a ruse, he gathered demonic followers left and right. Soon he found that he had a huge army. This army seemed invincible with Sukeisa behind their backs. The army plundered, murdered, and tortured people and towns. No one seemed to be able to defeat them. It was impossible, because rumor had it that Sukeisa was immortal and there was nothing that could hurt or kill him. The future looked pretty bleak for the humans.

"Then a solution presented itself: there was one thing left in the world that could defeat Sukeisa, a dragon. Back then, dragons were huge creatures that were truly immortal unless they were killed in their sleep. Since there hadn't been any need for the dragons to awake, they had retreated to their secret caves. Sukeisa had sent his best hunters and had all the dragons killed, including the young and any eggs that were around. However, they missed one dragon. This dragon was the oldest and wisest of its kind. He realized that he would not be able to survive a battle against Sukeisa because Sukeisa had powers that could hurt and possibly kill a wakeful dragon. So, in order to survive, he created the Astoria stone."

Kurama blinked, "I have heard of such a stone. It is said that it is a weapon that will do whatever the possessor asks of  it. If this means to destroy the world, it can do just that."

Koenma nodded, "That's right. This dragon had planned to use it against Sukeisa. The only problem is that using the stone requires a lot of energy and the dragon was gambling on the fact that it could be used to get rid of Sukeisa. The dragon and Sukeisa had one last fight, with everything leaning on this one final battle. The dragon released the powers of the Astoria stone. It did not destroy Sukeisa, instead, it merely contained him in an eternal sleep. Before the dragon died, he created what he called a 'dracon' or 'dragon child'. The 'dragon child' would awaken when the time was right and finish what was started those many years ago."

Yusuke looked confused, "So what is this dragon child supposed to do? Fight some old Sukeisa? Sounds easy enough for me."

Shaking his head, Kurama answered, "No. The dracon would be the guardian of the stone. There was another legend, one of a fierce power."

Kuwabara jumped in, "I remember that one! They say that sometime in the future, when the stars or something are aligned in a certain way, that a gateway to the past will open and all the spirit energy from the demons back then will be available to the demons here in the present."

Kurama agreed, "That was when the dracon would have to guard the stone so that the enemy could not use it. You see, the stone can only be used by a demon of extrodinary power. There are only a few demons left in the world today that can harness that kind of power. Even then, it might not be enough because the special spirit energy called "magical power" is needed to wield the stone as well. No one left in the world, save for the dracon has magical power. But if the powers of Sukeisa from the past are sent to the Sukeisa that is currently asleep, not only could Sukeisa break the spell, but he could become more of menace than he was before."

"Okay, so how is this related to us?" Yusuke demanded, ever impatient.

"The stone has been missing for ages, so we thought that it had never exsisted. So about fifteen years ago, when spirit world intelligence suddenly detected the stone, we were quite shocked. It was astounding that the stone had just suddenly appeared in our vaults."

* * * *

Aniya was furious. 'How could Katomi do this? Never mind, I didn't ask that question. I know why and how she could have done this.' She knew perfectly well about Katomi and her 'special powers.' 'She was my goddamn tutor!'

Back when Aniya had been wandering the streets of Tokyo, she had been at a lost end. She had no idea where to go, because she was hunted. One day, she had met a lovely woman who was very nice. 

_"Hello, my dear. Who are you?"_

_"Why do you want to know?"_

_"I just asked. Asking for someone's name isn't a crime, is it?"_

_"I guess not…"_

_"Go on, what's your name?"_

_"Aniya."_

_"Aniya. That's a pretty name. Did your parents give you that name?"_

_Little Aniya stared up into the lady's kind, black eyes. "I don't know. My parents left me at an orphanage when I was only an infant. I never knew my parents." She looked down at her black boots. Tears threatened to form in her eyes, but she willed them to remain within her. 'There, that ought to convince her. She'll think that I;m trying not to cry, and she'll feel sympathy for me. They fall for it every time.' She'd never cried in all her seven years._

_The lady bent down and lifted Aniya's chin. "Well, Aniya. My name is Katomi. Would you like to live with me? I can teach you to become something great. Come home with me and I will teach you magic." All the while, Aniya was thinking, 'Okay bitch. Whatever. I'll learn what I need to and then I'll leave you, but not before I nab a bunch of your stuff.' On the outside, a sad little Aniya blinked hopeful eyes, "Do you think I could? I mean, I wouldn't want to be an annoyance." _

_Katomi laughed. "I'm sure that you'd make me a fine apprentice. Then when you get older, I'll take you with me when I go on missions." Aniya followed the lady to her rich home. 'This will be fun, stealing things from you.'_

_For the next several months, Katomi looked after Aniya, training her to use magic, spirit energy and martial arts to fight. What she did not know was that Aniya had long since known all that there was to know about magic, spirit energy and martial arts. Katomi never seemed to notice that Aniya was surpassing her in every skill. Becoming more developed than her._

*****

Kuwabara was the confused one now. "Wait, you just said that it was in your vaults. So why is there a problem? You have the stone, so nothing can happen, right?"

Koenma shook his head. "Well that's when it got kind of messy."

*****

_'I have to get rid of the little brat. She is getting better than me. What can I do? I know…'"Aniya?"_

_"Yes, Lady Katomi?"_

_"I have a special job for you."_

_"Okay."_

_"There are a bunch of people who took something from me a long time ago. It means a lot to me, and I want you to get it back for me."_

_"What, you mean steal it?"_

_"It's not really stealing. More like taking it back. It's a very pretty stone. If I can get it back, then I can finally recreate my family's coat of arms. You know about the missing stone on the shield. It was taken many years back and I wish for it to be returned to me. This mission will complete your training." _

"Thank you Katomi-sama." Katomi watched as the little girl walked away. 'True, she may be talented in the martial arts and with her spirit energies, but with any luck, she'll be caught by the authorities, especially if I notify them. Then I can go in and take the stone for myself.' Katomi grinned. 'Good-bye Aniya. I hope you like the punishments they offer in spirit world.'

'That's right, she sent me off on that damned mission. Of course she knew that I would get caught by the security. Or so she thought. Proved her right that I made off with the stone without them even noticing. It was then that I left stupid Katomi all by herself. Then I joined the Arena.'

Aniya was shaken from her memories  when a small lizard creature suddenly appeared. "Sani? Is that you? I haven't seen you in years." She held out her arm as the tiny winged lizard sat on her arm. "I thought I set you free." Then she remembered. "Damn. It must be that stupid Koenma. She opened the little scroll attached to Sani's neck. She opened it and inside it read:

Black Dragon, remember the bargain we made.

Aniya crumpled up the piece of paper. "A bargain is a bargain." She grabbed her armor and face mask and ran out of the abandoned warehouse.__

*****

Yusuke exploded, "You mean that some thief just made off with the stone?"

Koenma nodded, "Trust me. There was nothing compared to the punishment that I was about to face if the stone wasn't returned. Even the artifacts of darkness were mere trinkets compared to the stone. So I set agents working on it immediately. Of course, this thief was very hard to track. In the end, we found him. We made a bargain with him. If he protected the stone for us, then in return we would leave him alone. But, if he ever lost the stone, then we would be forced to send a team after it and this guardian would be forced to join the team."

Kuwabara didn't looked happy, "So, the stone's been stolen and we have to work with some stupid freak? Does this freak have a name?"

Koenma looked at Botan and nodded. Botan replied, "We don't his true name. All we know is that he goes by the name of the Black Dragon."

Hiei jerked. "The Black Dragon, as in the Black Dragon that fought in the Arena for years?"

Koenma nodded, "I believe so. Why do you ask?"

Hiei looked sharply at him, "Do you have any idea who the Black Dragon is?" Seeing their blank looks, Hiei continued: "The Arena is a place for the demons to train. It's not in spirit world or the human world. The Arena is a non-ending tournament, in a sense. A demon signs up and once takes the oath, is paired off with other demons to fight against. Only the toughest survive. It's a training place for the worst criminals, thieves and killers of the demon world. The Black Dragon is the best. He can fight faster and harder than anyone. He's odd though. He never talks and never shows his face. The only thing you see is his entire black outfit. He's never lost a fight. He lives solely to fight in the Arena."

Yusuke looked at Koenma, "Are you serious? We have to work with someone like that? How can we trust this guy not to kill us? This guy doesn't sound like he should be part of the team. I mean, how do we know that he won't betray us?"

Koenma was looking at a little winged lizard that had landed on the arm of his chair. "Ah, Sani. Did you find…? And the answer…? Very good. Thank you." He released the little lizard from his arm. "Sani has reported that the Black Dragon has decided to remember the bargain that we made. He should be arriving soon."

*****

'Damn that stupid Koenma. He knew that I would have to go along with the stupid bargain.' Aniya remembered the day that she had been found. She had just finished fighting and was congratulating herself on a particularly good day. She had been eight at the time. After only several months, Aniya had reached the top of the ranks in the Arena. She came up with a new name for herself. The Black Dragon.

On that day, she had been walking home when suddenly Katomi appeared in front of her.

"The Black Dragon, I presume?" Aniya nodded. "I believe you have something of mine…I want it back." 

Aniya shook  her head and stood her ground.

"Give it back you bitch!" Aniya had been forced to fight with her right then and there. Of course, it was just her luck that there was a rule about no fighting on the premises unless you were in the actual arena and it was truly her lucky day because there were plenty of security people on duty to witness her breaking the rules. She had to face the consequences: she was brought to spirit world.

As Aniya ran to Koenma's palace, she remembered when she was brought there seven years ago.

The Black Dragon, also known as Aniya, was brought before Koenma in a teenage form. She didn't hold with authorities much but she decided that if she ever wanted to go back to fighting in the Arena, she would have to act good. 

"You are the Black Dragon?" Koenma had asked. Aniya nodded as a reply. "I have a bargain for you." Aniya's ears pricked up at the thought of getting out of spirit world and back in the Arena . Koenma continued, "Now, I know and you know that it was you who was in here a year ago and you stole the Astoria stone. Now, we know that you've broken some of the rules. We noticed that you are an accomplished fighter and have taken good care of the stone this year. Here's the deal: you can continue to fight in the Arena if you protect the stone for us. There is one set back: if the stone is ever stolen, I will send people to help you retrieve it, regardless of whether you would want to retrieve it or not." 

*****

"The bargain was made so that the stone would be protected, no matter what. So if the stone was stolen, the Black Dragon would not be able to just shirk his duties and continue on with his life. He would have to protect the stone. Quite frankly, I believe that the Black Dragon would protect the stone, even if he was not forced to do so," Koenma concluded. He noticed that the blue ogre had entered the room. "Ah, ogre, please send in the Black Dragon." The ogre nodded and went to the door. When he returned, there was a small black figure following him. "Koenma sir, the Black Dragon."

A/N: How was it? At this point I would like to thank Diana-sama and Terris for reviewing my story before it was taken away. You guys are great! Review and maybe I'll post the second chapter real soon! Nijert! (That's the noise I make all the time at school. Don't mind me). KS01224


	2. The Black Dragon

A/N: I couldn't wait for reviews and wanted to get this posted. Again, killersmurf is no longer my pen name. You might have figured it out. So anyway. I know that Hiei doesn't master the Dragon technique until the dark tournament, but I said at the beginning of the story that this was right after the Yukina mission. It's confusing. I wrote this when I'd only seen up to the Yukina episodes, so if the dragon technique isn't quite right, then blame it on my ignorant self last summer. Enjoy, from KS01224. 

Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I make any attempt to say that I have any claim on the characters and ideas of Yu Yu Hakusho. Again, don't sue me as I already have money issues.

Part Two: The Black Dragon

The Black Dragon entered the room. Yusuke looked down on him—literally. 'This guy's shorter and smaller than Hiei and he looks weaker too. He must be full of himself to wear black ninja clothes like that, cover his face so we can't see what he looks like, and call himself the Black Dragon. How do we know that this is the real Black Dragon? What if he's just some loser off the street, imitating him?'

Kuwabara seemed to be thinking along the same lines, "How do we know this is the Black Dragon? How can we tell that he's not a fake?"

Hiei replied, "Why don't you fight him and find out?"

The red-heard looked at the demon and replied, "You know shorty, I think that's a good idea. I think I will fight him."

Kurama looked at Kuwabara, Hiei, the Black Dragon and Kuwabara again. "Kuwabara, I do not think that Hiei was being serious in his suggestion. It is not necessary for you to fight— " He was interrupted by a small motion. The Black Dragon raised his arm and called Sani to him. After a few seconds, Sani flew to Koenma who relayed the message: "Sani says that the Black Dragon would be more than willing to fight you, but requests that you fight only to knock unconscious. He says that he does not want to kill you before you have a chance to lose to someone else."

"Okay shorty, we'll duke it out right here!" Kuwabara was getting angry. Koenma interrupted, "Why don't we move into a larger area so that we do not destroy anything. Shall we?" He floated out the door with Botan right behind him. Yusuke and Kuwabara quickly followed them out. Only the Black Dragon, Kurama and Hiei remained. As they followed the Black Dragon out, both of the demons were thinking hard.

'This must be a human, the ki is so weak. It is quite possible that this person is not the real dragon, but merely an imposter. If it is, Kuwabara should have little difficulty fighting him.' Kurama continued to wonder about the true identity of the small fighter. Hiei on the other hand had his mind on other things. 'So familiar…'

Aniya was cursing to herself. 'Just what does it take for me to prove that I can fight and that I'm really the Black Dragon?! I mean, how hard is it to accept that I'm short? Okay, maybe that's not the hard part…the hard part is being a girl but…' 

When she had joined the Arena, she had to disguise the fact that she was a girl because there were only a few demons who would willing fight a girl. 'A waste of time,' one of them had said. Aniya had been determined to make it in the Arena though, so she started dressing completely in black, hiding her feminine features. No one could tell that she was a girl. Size didn't really matter in the Arena. Hell, wasn't there that Toguro brother Ani who was practically doll sized? 

So Aniya disguised who she really was, calling herself the Black Dragon. Since that day when one of those demons had said that it was a waste of time, she had vowed on several things: one, to track that demon down and make him eat his words; two, beat the crap out of anyone who chose to fight with her; three, try to survive doing the first two things. She had pride and she wasn't going to die until that fighter realized that girls could fight just as well. 

'Well, this will be good practice for me won't it? Anyway, I'll wait until I've won the fight to show them that I'm a girl. That way, only they know and it'll be more of a shock.' Aniya smiled beneath her mask, following the two human boys. 'It will be good practice for showing who I really am to that bastard who refused to fight with me six years ago.' 

"Here we are! Now, Kuwabara, you can be on this side and Dragon, you can be on this side." Koenma organized the match. It took Kuwabara a couple of seconds to see something: "Hey, why I am facing you guys?" Hiei replied, "Because you're less likely to cause permanent damage if you happen to miss." Kuwabara started to yell back when Botan noticed something: "Guys, I think the Black Dragon is ready to fight!" The Black Dragon had settled into a fighting stance, prepared for what was coming.

Kuwabara got out "SPIRIT SWORD!!!!" He charged at the Black Dragon. Aniya thought as she watched his approach, 'Wow. He's really bad. It's going to be a pity that this fight won't last ten seconds.' Kuwabara yelled as he ran toward Aniya. "Shorty, today is the day that you meet Spirit Sword." Aniya laughed silently, 'Hello spirit sword.' She grabbed the sword as it reached her and used it to fling Kuwabara away. 'What's that? You have to go, so sorry. Hope you like meeting two new people: Wall and Floor.'

"Oomph!" said Kuwabara as he hit the wall. "Ugh!" he said when he hit the floor. Aniya paused. 'Oops, I think I might have flung him a little too hard. Oh well. Next person.' She turned to face the others. Raising a hand, she beckoned Yusuke forward. 

"Okay, you want to fight me now? Is that it?" Yusuke looked a little worried. "Detective, don't worry. Your ugly friend was weak, you will be fine." Yusuke turned, "Thanks Hiei…I think." Over in his corner, Kuwabara mumbled, "Who you calling ugly?" before he met another friend, Unconsciousness. 

 Yusuke walked forward. 'Hmm, wait to use the spirit gun.' "Why don't I start off with a SHOT GUN!!" He ran and aimed at the entire wall behind the Black Dragon. He landed and watched as the smoke started to clear away. "No one can dodge the shot gun." He heard Hiei add, "Lousy tactic, you didn't even have to aim." Yusuke laughed. "How do you like that Black Dragon?" He faced Koenma "Well, I guess the Black Dragon can't come with us." He paused because he saw Botan and Koenma staring at something in the middle of the gym. Come to think of it, Kurama and Hiei were staring at it too. 'Don't tell me…"

Aniya stood there like a rock. 'Hmm…not a bad attack. That attack though releases too much energy. Luck for me that I managed to absorb almost all of it. I'll have to keep tabs on that one. Let's see, what should I use…?' She grinned evilly, 'Why not? It almost seems too cruel…oh well.' She formed a gun with her fingers of her right hand. 

Yusuke saw the Black Dragon form a gun with his right hand. "No way. I use the spirit gun!" Yusuke began to form his own spirit gun and prepared to take the stupid Dragon down. 'Okay, this Dragon is really beginning to piss me off. First he manages to escape the shot gun, then he uses the spirit gun? What the hell is up with that?' 

She gathered all of the spirit energy that she had absorbed from Yusuke's shot gun and put it behind the trigger of her spirit gun. Silently she thought, 'Now children, this is how you do a real spirit gun…..SPIRIT GUN!' She watched as the energy shot out to Yusuke. 'That is a spirit gun, Yusuke style.'

Yusuke tried to run as the blast came for him. But the energy just followed him. 'Why the hell is it doing this? It's just a spirit gun. Spirit gun attacks can't change course.' Then he realized there was something strange about the spirit energy. But the energy hit him before he could realize that the energy that was following him was his own.

Aniya smiled as she walked back to the center of the gym. She looked at Kurama and Hiei. 'Which will fight next?' she wondered. 'I am very interested in fighting both of them.' She looked as Kurama asked, "Hiei would like to have the next fight, or shall I?" Hiei smirked. "You can have the next one. Those two were weak and allowed him to use their own attacks to attack them. Fighting this…creature would be a waste of my time."

Aniya froze. _'Fighting this creature would be a waste of my time…'_ Those words echoed in her brain as she suddenly came to the realization that it was him! She beckoned Hiei forward, eager to hurt him. She might not be allowed to kill, but by gods, she could make him wish she could. Hiei saw the Dragon beckon towards him. 'The Black Dragon wants to fight me?' "Kurama. Let this fight be mine. The Dragon seems to be insisting on it."

By this time Kuwabara and Yusuke were awake. "Hiei is going to fight the Dragon? Now the Dragon doesn't stand a chance." Kurama spoke, "I don't know about that Yusuke. The Black Dragon is well known and has amazing powers." "Shh! I want to see this!" Koenma seemed interested in the fight as well.

Hiei walked to the middle of the gym. "I suggest we raise the stakes a little. Anything goes." Aniya nodded. It didn't matter if she died. At least she would die kicking his ass. "Ready?" Aniya nodded again. Hiei ran toward her with amazing speed, but she had anticipated this and stepped out of the way just as quickly. Hiei pivoted and came at her again, this time with a fist flying. Aniya ducked and stuck out her foot, forcing Hiei to do a sumersault and land in a crouch. 'He's fast,' thought Hiei, 'but I'm faster.' He charged at her again. This time, she didn't move, but met his attack with a block. Fist, arm, block, punch, kick, kneel, flip…the attacks didn't seem to end.

By this point, all the rest of the people saw were blurred figures. "I guess they haven't decided to use weapons yet." Yusuke said. "How do you know?" "Simple, Kuwabara, if they aren't using weapons, then there is nothing for the light to reflect off of, which is what causes the flashes of light when Hiei attacks with his katana." "Oh." Then they saw flashes, "_Now_ they're using weapons."

Hiei and Aniya both whipped out their swords. Sparks flew as the two fighters exchanged blows. Neither of them were getting any where. Hiei flipped out of immediate danger and watched as the Black Dragon did the same. "I suggest that we use power attacks now since neither of us seem to be getting anywhere." He noticed that the Black Dragon was removing some of his armor from his left arm. Hiei removed his coat and the bandages from his arm and forehead. With his jagan eye exposed, he could begin to really fight.

Aniya removed the armor from her arm. She only needed to blow on the scar in order for her powers to be activated. 'Let's see how he likes it, with me using my full powers now.' The three little scratches on her hand glowed a bright blue. The bright blue light increased and encased all of Aniya's body. She put the armor back on.

"Why is she putting the armor back on? Doesn't that mean that she's restricting the powers she uses?" Kuwabara asked. "It doesn't matter. All we need to worry about right now is Hiei's dragon wave attack." Yusuke looked at Kurama, "Why?" Kurama replied, looking at Hiei again. "If his attack works, then what will we do about the mission? Koenma seems to think that we need the Black Dragon. If his attack fails, what will he do then?" The group looked at the two fighters watched each other. 

Hiei began to concentrate on his attack. Aniya was a little worried, 'What is he using? I can't sense it.' Hiei's eyes opened as he released the attack. The giant black dragon came soaring at Aniya. Aniya raised a fist and thought at it, 'Calm down, there is no need for you to be so angry.' The dragon stopped its attack. 'What you really want is to be here, be my friend. I won't hurt you. Come on, there's a good boy.' Everyone stared in amazement as the dragon settled down on the floor next to the Black Dragon. 'Good boy. It's a pity you're only a spell.' She raised her arm again and the dragon vanished. She immediately felt weak. 'Shit. That spell was strong. Almost too strong.' She tried to stay on her feet.

Hiei looked at her. 'Dammit! Where did the dragon go? The spell didn't work but it must've because it didn't consume me.' He watched with widening eyes as the Black Dragon continued to walk slowly toward him. He raised his sword as Aniya attacked him, with silver claws from her hands. Hiei was tired from the spell and couldn't keep this up much longer. Aniya twisted the sword out of his hands and before she caught it, she retracted the shining claws. As the sword landed in her hand, Hiei fell down from exhaustion. 

Aniya pointed the sword at Hiei's throat. He fell back and looked at her with furious eyes. "Acknowledged. Your victory." As he stared at her, Aniya remembered that day a long time ago, the day she became the Black Dragon…

"'Scuse me, who do I fight today?"

_"You want to fight? We don't let little girls fight."_

_"But you let little boys fight, why am I any different?"_

_"'Cause you're a girl. Shouldn't you be at home with your mom or something, kid?" He looked at the determined little face. 'I can't break the rules. If the kid says she wants to fight we have to. But there is a way to insure that she'll never be back.' " Okay…wait a minute." The demon running the pairing for the battles in the Arena turned on his megaphone. "Will Hiei come up here?" Turning off the megaphone, the demon turned to her and asked, "You sure you up to fighting again? I mean it looks like you're gonna take a pounding if you fight him" _

_Aniya squared her shoulders. "I can fight anyone! Just watch!" She looked as a short demon walked up to the area where the fighters met. The demon was dressed in all black, and demanded "Do I get a fight?"_

_"Yup. You're fighting Aniya."_

_"Aniya, who the hell is that?"_

_"That's me!"_

_Hiei looked down at the little girl that stood at his feet. She was about eight or nine, he gathered. Silver hair and crystal blue eyes were part of her adorable face. Of course, Hiei thought she should be at home, grooming that face instead of fighting. 'This is so insulting. To think that I would fight someone like it?'  He looked at the demon running the show. "You have got to be kidding me."_

_"Nope. The kid wants a fight. So, rules are rules."_

_"I am not fighting a weak female."_

_"Who are you calling weak?! Come here you bastard!" Two guard demons picked up the girl and threw her out as she yelled, "You wouldn't do that if I was a boy!!" _

_Hiei laughed and the last thing Aniya heard before she was chucked out in the street was "Fighting this creature would be a waste of my time." Aniya sat there outside the big gates as it started to rain. 'Whoever you are, wherever you go, I'm going to track you down and I'll show you who's weak or I'll die trying.' _

Aniya returned the next day, but she disguised herself in black. Being the smart person that she was, she created a creature called Sani to talk for her. She went to a different clerk and requested a fight. She got her fight and from then on, she was known as the Black Dragon.

Hiei looked up the Black Dragon. "Who…are...you?" he said, as he began to fall asleep. Aniya looked at him sharply. Dropping the sword, she turned around, so that no one could see her face. "Who am I? You want to know who I am?" She unwrapped the black strips that had hidden her face from every person she ever fought. Removing the last of the mask, she shook out her silver her. Turning, she looked at everyone. She looked at Hiei. "I am Aniya, the Black Dragon." 

Hiei stared at her in shock. 'It's…the…little…girl…from…the Arena.' He managed to say "damn" before he fell asleep. Aniya looked at the rest of the group and suddenly swayed, "His spell was powerful. Almost too powerful for me to counteract it." She looked at him one last time, counted slowly to ten, and then dropped to her knees. "..Ten. ..I win…" She smiled before she hit the ground. "Life is one big Arena battle, and I just won." With that she fell to the blackness.

The entire group was looking at Aniya with hanging jaws until Kuwabara summed it up, "So he's a she? That means…I hit a girl?!" He looked shocked at breaking his own honor code. Yusuke clapped him on the back. "Don't worry. I wouldn't call that 'hitting'. You attacked and never touched her. So it doesn't really count as fighting." "You're really asking for it, Urameshi…"

"Boys! Now is not the time!" Botan yelled at the two teenagers who looked ready to beat the crap out of each other. "We need to get Hiei and …Aniya someplace so that they can recover. You guys looked like you could use some healing as well." Koenma agreed, "You two need to get some rest. When everyone is recovered, then you have to go on this mission. While you are recovering, you can learn more about the stone and Katomi from Aniya."

Both boys groaned. "Now you're giving us homework? On a weekend? What's up with that?!" Koenma looked away, "I'm sorry boys, but this case won't be like any that you've faced yet, so you need lots of time to prepare." They grumbled some more, but followed Botan. 

"Koenma sir?"

"Yes, ogre?"  
"Where would you like me to put the guests?"

"Put the two boys in guest quarters. Hiei and Aniya can go in the infirmary."

"Yes, sir."

Kurama asked, "Where would you like me sir? I do not have any injuries and currently have nothing to do."

Koenma smiled, "You can go to the infirmary too." Seeing Kurama's look of surprise, he added, "I don't want Aniya and Hiei to kill each other once they wake up. I don't think we can afford to waste much more time." Kurama nodded and followed the ogres who were carrying Aniya and Hiei. Koenma smiled and rubbed his hands. "Now that that's out of the way, I can eat another sugar-coated strawberry rice cake." 

* * * * *

Aniya was having troubling dreams again…

_She was running to catch up to someone. She couldn't see who the person was, but she knew that she had to beat that person to wherever it was that they were running. For a while, it looked like Aniya had the lead, but then she slowly began to fall behind. Tripping, she fell flat on her face, mere paces from a glowing barrier. The other person ran through the barrier and walked up to a pedestal. On the pedestal was the Astoria stone!_

_"No!" Aniya shouted, and then she heard a cruel laugh. It was a laugh that Aniya had learned to hate ever since she had met the person. "Katomi, give it back!"_

_Katomi turned around. "You want this back? Tough luck. It's mine but you took it anyway. I warned you not to cross with me. Now you and all your friends must pay." She paused, "Oh, what's that? You don't have any friends? If you did you could have gotten the stone." Katomi turned and walked toward a shadow, "Here you are, the Astoria stone, just like you asked sir."_

_"Good work Katomi." The shadow turned gleaming red eyes on Aniya.  "My dear, do you realize that you could have been the one holding the stone right now if you had become friends with those people Koenma sent you to work with? They wouldn't be about to die and you wouldn't have to watch them."_

_"What?! Why should I care if they die?" Aniya bluffed, while she thought on the inside, 'Leave them out of this. They didn't need to get caught up in this fight.' "Your fight is with me, not them and I think it's rude that you're ignoring me!" 'There, that ought to make him leave them alone. Come on, pick a fight with me, not with them.'_

_"Oh really? Turn around." Aniya was forced to turn around and invisible bonds held her there. "You see this little old lady? She could have taught you many things about defeating opponents without leaving marks. But because you did not seek her help, she will die." Aniya tried to close her eyes as she watched blood seep out of the little old lady. _

_"Next, you see this little person?" She tried to remain impassive as she noticed it only a toddler. "He tried to help you, tried to help protect the stone by making that bargain with you. If you have just followed the bargain, he wouldn't be dieing right now." Aniya couldn't do a thing as the apparently little boy burned. 'Just pick a fight with me, not with them. They never should have interfered!'_

_"Here's a pretty girl. She could have helped you learn to fit into society, to mingle with humans and demons so you wouldn't be such an outcast. But you chose to kill her when you chose to ignore her." Aniya watched, 'Damn, what's the use of being the Black Dragon if I can't help people?' The girl with the blue hair slowly choked._

_"Stop! Leave them alone! They didn't do anything!" The shadow laughed at Aniya's pleads. "They didn't do anything because you wouldn't let them. You thought friends were crutches, but because you chose to go after the Astoria stone on your own. Your pride and your want to be alone were your faults. Now you must face the consequences of ignoring their help." The shadow produced a spirit sword and threw it into the boy with the orange hair. The boy with the green outfit died from his own attack, as the shadow shot him with a spirit gun. A red-headed demon fell as his rose whip turned on him. The shadow looked at the last two people._

_'No, don't hurt the girl. Please don't hurt the girl.' The shadow looked at Aniya. "These two could have been your greatest allies. Now, who do I kill first, the girl or the boy?" Aniya shouted at the shadow, "Kill the boy. He made fun of me, he has to pay." 'Leave the girl alone, please.' The shadow laughed. "Wrong choice. To kill the boy is to kill the girl." Aniya watched at the boy died in flames and the girl ran over to help him, and ended up dieing too. _

_Katomi laughed too, "You see, Aniya. That girl could have helped you make friends. Without her, you can never make friends. Pity that she had to die. The only person who can tell you how to find her is the boy! Hahahaha!" Suddenly she began to choke. "Katomi, you get to die too, because you weren't supposed to tell her that. Aniya, you see what happens to people who do things they aren't supposed to? Now I'm going to give you a choice. You can either die now, or you can die later?"_

_"What kind of choices are those?"_

_"You can either die now without friends, or you can die later, trying to fight with your friends. Either way, both you and they die….what, what was that? I don't hear an answer. I'll have to choose for you. You can…die now!" With that he released a storm of torment on her. As the shock hit her, Aniya suddenly learned all the names of the people she had just watched die. 'Gengkai…Koenma…Botan…Kuwabara…Yusuke…Kurama…Hiei…and…who was the girl?' _

_"You want to know who the girl is? Well I'm afraid I can't tell you that. I can tell you my name, Aniya. My name is Sukeisa."_

_'Sukeisa?! You bastard!'_

_"Sukeisa!!"_

"Sukeisa!!" Aniya sat up, breathing heavily. 'Damn those dreams. They keep interfering with my life. Wish they would just go away.' Going through calming down exercises, she slowly decreased the rate of her breathing. Aniya slowly got out of bed and noticed that she was in a room that looked a bit like a hospital. 'Hell, I hate hospitals.' Her first visit hadn't been pleasant. She didn't plan on ever getting in one again. She walked over to the window that was open. 'That's funny, there must be really good security for them to leave the windows open.' Leaning out of the window, she saw the stars. 'Stars…I haven't seen stars for a while.' 

She heard a footstep behind her, "Trouble sleeping?" Aniya whirled around and saw the red-haired demon. 'That's him, the one with the rose whip.' She hid her surprise and replied, "No. Is it a crime to walk around at night?" The demon hid a smile, "No, but you should be in bed, I do not think you are completely healed yet." 

"Really? Then why does it seem that I'm walking around just fine? I think I'm done fixing myself." Aniya turned back to the open window and stared at the stars. Kurama looked at her, "If your well, then would you mind telling me what your dream was about? You were talking in your sleep."

Aniya jerked. 'Hmm, I never knew that. I'd better learn to put a silent spell on me first before I go to bed or I'll end up shouting everything to the world.' "That's interesting. What did I say?"

"Nothing of any signifigance, except for one thing. You seemed to be bothered by some girl. A girl with the kind face. You didn't seem to want her hurt. Who is the girl?" Kurama inquired.

Aniya laughed, "Actually, I don't really know. She's just someone that I used to dream about a lot when I was little. When I was younger, I lived on the streets. I used to have dreams that involved lots of blue and silver light. Most of the time I couldn't understand them, but by the time I was two or three, I started having dreams about this dragon person. He always told me this stupid little poem that went:

Even though I may be dead, 

Sukeisa lives, his evil blood was not shed.

When the stars align in a winter sky,

His evil powers, will once again, begin to fly.

Who will help the good? Who could fight a power so wild?

Aide will come in the form of a dragon child.

She can wield the power in the stone and save you all,

But what good will she be is does fall?

Only with friends, can she let the power free,

So seven friends there will be,

Until the last minute, when it is almost too late,

Then and only then, will there be eight.

The seven will help her find the last,

Someone from her bitter past.

And without the eighth friend,

All that is good and pure will come to and end.

"Later on, when I was about four, the dragon person always showed me pictures of this girl. She looked about my age, but she was small. She had the kindest face that I ever met. In my dreams, along with the stupid poem one, I would get to see what she was doing. I got through each day, just so I could see her. She inspired me to live, in a sense. I pretended that I was the dragon child in the poem and she was the last friend. I imagined that we would be sisters and together we would defeat whoever this Sukeisa was. As I got older, I realized that I couldn't be the dragon child, and I would probably never meet the little girl who lived in the snow." She stopped, "I'm not boring you am I?" Seeing Kurama shake his head, she continued, "I've never told anyone so much about my life at once. Consider yourself lucky. I probably won't do something like this again."

Kurama smiled. "I do not mind. I know how it feels to have to tell things to people." He remembered the day that he told Yusuke his history and why he needed the forlorn mirror. "So what was so bad in this dream?"

Aniya shuddered. "This wasn't a dream. Up until Katomi took me in," she was interrupted. "Katomi took you in?" Aniya nodded. "Yup. She quote, unquote 'trained' me. Then she sent me to steal the Astoria stone. It must have come as a shock to her when she found out that not only had I stolen the stone, but I hadn't been caught. Anyway, once Katomi took me in, I still had the other dreams, but I began to have nightmares. My nightmares always dealt with me either running out of time, energy, strength or life so I couldn't reach the stone. This shadow man kept talking to me, telling me that I would never become anything good. I was discouraged, but I imagined what the little girl would think if I let him get to me. One night, he told me that I would never have any friends, and if I did, he would track them down and kill them. Of course I didn't believe him. I was about six at the time." Aniya paused and looked out at the stars. 

"One day, I was walking around on this errand the Katomi had sent me to do. 'Go there and come straight back' she'd said. But I had no intention of listening to her because recently she had begun to appear in the dreams as well. I didn't like her. I was walking around and I met this little human boy. He asked if I would play with him because no one else would. I agreed and for the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to have fun. He asked if I could come and play again tomorrow and I said yes." Aniya's fists clenched, "That night, I came home and Katomi wanted to know where I'd been. I told her that I did her errand, and did it matter where I went? She sent me to bed, and later I had a nightmare about the shadow man came to me. He showed me this orb of light and inside was the little boy I had played with earlier today. He looked at me and he said, 'Didn't I tell you I would kill your friends?' He snapped his finger and in the orb, the little boy went limp. His mother ran to him and rushed him to the hospital, but he was dead. 

"When I woke up, I told myself I would never have any friends because I didn't want them to get killed. That's why I joined the Arena at an early age. I wanted everyone to stay away from me and if I fought everyone, they'd either be too afraid to talk to me or they'd want to fight." She looked back at Kurama. "I nearly didn't agree to that stupid bargain of Koenma's, but he was threatening my life in the Arena. Without the Arena, I thought people would want to be my friends, I didn't want them to get hurt. I assumed I would never lose the stone, so I wouldn't have to worry. Now I have to work with people."

Looking at the floor, she finished, "The dream I had just now, it showed the seven people." She racked her brain to try and remember the names, "The shadow man showed me each of the people dieing, the seven people from the poem. Then he told me their names. Gengkai. Koenma. Botan. Kuwabara. Yusuke. Kurama. Hiei. I don't want any of those people hurt, so that's why I have to go after the stone alone. If they become my friends, then they will lead me to the dream girl who lives in the snow, and she will die. I don't want anyone else killed because of me."

Kurama looked at her. "You do not have to worry. Everyone can take care of themselves. In fact, we might be able to help you defeat this shadow man. If we eliminate him, then you don't have to worry about the ice maiden dieing."

Aniya looked at him sharply, "Ice maiden? Do you know her? Do you know her name?"

He smiled, "Her name is Yukina."

She smiled. 'Yukina. Now I know her name. But I can't let her get hurt.' "It doesn't matter what her name is. I still have to leave, to protect her, to protect the people." She started toward her bed, where she had left everything. A hand stopped her from packing.

"You shouldn't leave. We won't let Yukina or anyone you mentioned die."

Aniya looked up with hope in her eyes, "Really?" He nodded. "What's your name?"

"My name is Kurama."

Aniya was happy. 'I have a friend, I know the name of the dream girl and I kicked the ass of that short know-it-all who pissed me off six years ago. Life is good.'

A/N: Sorry about the stuff at the beginning. Oh, and word of advise, if you're reading this for the first time: try not to focus on having all the details match the poem exactly because you will get very confused, right about chapter 15 or so. Nijert! KS01224


	3. Katomi's Secrets

A/N: I hoped you liked the last two parts, this part doesn't have any flashblacks *does a stupid little dance* and I managed to keep everyone in character. Yay me!

Disclaimer: As much as I would like to say that I own Botan, Yukina, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Koenma, Hiei, Kurama and anyone else I failed to mention, I can't. But I can claim Aniya, Sukeisa, Sani and Katomi as much as I want, so HA!

Dragons in Time

Part 3: Katomi's Secrets 

Hiei woke up in the infirmary. Looking he saw Kurama sitting next to him. "Ha. I beat the stupid girl didn't I? She's still asleep." 

"Actually Hiei, she's been awake since midnight." Kurama answered, trying to hide a smile. He knew how much Hiei's pride meant to him. 

"What?" 'Dammit. I must have lost more energy than I thought.' "How long have I been out?" He stared at Kurama. "Please tell me it was less than six hours." Seeing Kurama wince slightly, he closed his eyes. "It was more than six hours, wasn't it?" 'Shit, I must really be getting weak.'

"It was close on twelve hours. You were out around nine or ten. It's ten in the morning. Don't worry about breakfast, Koenma says you can send for food once you are awake."

"Hn. I don't recall saying that I needed that fool's help to get my own food." Moving himself out of bed, he walked over to a peg on the wall that held his coat. Swinging it on, he checked to make sure that his katana was in place before walking out. 

Aniya came out of an adjoining room, drying her hair. "Gee, he's grumpy. I don't think he's a morning person." Kurama chuckled, "It's not that. Hiei is grumpy because you came along." Aniya looked surprised, "What did I do?" Kurama began ticking the reasons on his fingers, "First Koenma suggests that we use you in the mission instead of Botan and Hiei doesn't like strangers." He looked thoughtful, "Not that he likes Botan either, but he'd rather choose her over a stranger. Second, you challenge him to a match. Third, you beat him. Fourth, you practically rubbed it in his face that you were a girl that he knew and you came back for revenge. Lastly, you took less time to recover than him."

Aniya looked shocked, "Well, of course I took less time than him. I didn't actually lose spirit energy, I just used some energy to change it to magic power so I could subdue his spell. His spell didn't work, so he would have lost all that energy, beside the fact that we were fighting for a while before than as well. So I would expect him to take longer to recover." She paused as Sani flew in from the window. "Hello, Sani. What's this?" Aniya looked at the little dragon. "Yes. Oh, okay. Yes, we'll come. Tell Koenma we'll be there." She whipped her arm up as the little dragon prepared to soar out of the room again. 

"May I ask what that was about?"

Aniya turned around. "Oh, nothing much. Koenma wanted to know if Hiei was awake and I said yes. Then Sani said that he wanted all of us to come to his meeting chamber, I told her to tell him that we'll be there soon." She grabbed her sword and headed out the door. Turning she looked back at Kurama, "Well, are you coming or not?" He nodded and they left.

As they were walking, Kurama asked, "Where did you find Sani?" Aniya looked confused. "I have never seen such a creature. I have seen some similar, but none the same. Did you save her from somewhere?" Aniya shook her head. "No, Sani and I go a long way back. When I was starting to fight in the Arena, I didn't want my voice to betray the fact that I was a girl. It was hard enough pretending to be a boy, but sooner or later, people would wonder about my voice. I thought that if I could have someone speak for me, that a bunch of my problems would be solved." They passed doorways and ogres who were scurrying from those doorways. "Before I left on my mission to steal the stone for Katomi, I had fallen in love with a little jade dragon that was on her dresser. That morning, I stole it and then she called me in for the mission. 

"When I needed to find someone who would speak for me, I wished that the little jade dragon could be my voice. I don't exactly know what happened. The next thing I know, there's a little dragon on my arm, chirping. On the table there was a pile of jade dust. The little dragon and I could apparently speak mind to mind without any psychic people getting involved. I named her Sani. Sani seems to be able to make herself understood when she needs to be. So I can talk to her and she can relay what I want her to say. It worked well. No one ever questioned the little Black Dragon who carried around a little green dragon, because dragons were rare. I guess I earned some respect because people thought I had had the nerve enough to actually buy a dragon on the black market. But, hey, she sure is useful and she sticks by me no matter what."

She smiled, remembering the times that Sani had been her only friend. 'Companion is more like it. I told her everything that bothered me, but it still helps to have someone who can actually understand what's going on.' Aniya was so caught up in her calming thoughts that she never realized that Kurama had stopped outside a door. "Here we are. Ladies first." She smiled at his gentility. 'It's nice to have someone to talk civilly to me once.' Aniya walked in, followed by Kurama. 

There were eight chairs set in a semi circle, with a screen on the opposite wall. Most of the people were already there. Koenma and Gengkai sat in the two most center chairs, obviously the most important people. On Gengkai's right was Yusuke. Acting as a barrier between Yusuke and Kuwabara, Botan wasn't looking too happy. Hiei sat alone as far way as possible. Kurama gestured to a chair next to Koenma and Aniya bowed to Gengkai and Koenma before taking her seat. Kurama sat in the chair between Aniya and Hiei. 'That should keep anything from happening.' 

Koenma began, "As you have already learned the history of the stone, you understand why we need to recover it and restore it to Aniya as fast as possible. There's no telling what Katomi would do with the stone." As he paused to set the screen into action, Aniya smiled, 'He doesn't know, does he?' She focused on the screen as the room went dark.

On the screen was a scenic view of a castle in the north, on the shore. Silent photographic waves crashed against the rocks that surrounded the base of the castle in the picture. 'Wow. Imagine, I called that fortress my home for five years. I think I'd rather live in a cardboard box than in that home now. Come to think of it, I hated living there.'  Koenma began to speak again. 

"This is where Katomi is currently residing. It is hidden magically and will require a lot of effort to find it. Once you are there, however, the real challenge will begin. Katomi is an enchantress, so she uses magic to defend herself and her home."

Yusuke shifted in his seat, "So we find the place, beat the lady, get the jewel and get out. Sounds like a piece of cake." 

Koenma shook his head, "I wish it was actually that easy Yusuke. You see, since she is a powerful enchantress, she hasn't been defeated before, or she wouldn't be here. So no one who has gone into her house has come out again and survived. If they have, she tracked them down and they disappeared from all knowledge. We don't know what you'll face once your inside. Getting inside will be hard enough." He looked at the group. "Since there is nothing more that we can tell you, I suggest you get moving, because the sooner we get that stone back the better. Botan, get Kuwabara and Yusuke to the living world, but then come back. We'll let the guys handle this one." The lights came back on. 

Kuwabara jumped up, "So you're not giving us a floor plan or anything?! How are we supposed to fight someone or something that we know nothing about?!"

"The circumstances are similar to when we fought the four saint beasts. We knew hardly anything about them and we managed to succeed. Out of our group, we should be able to find the fortress and penetrate it." Kurama answered calmly. The people began to scatter. The four boys and Aniya walked together out in the corridor. Well, the boys walked and Aniya trailed silently behind them.

"Oh yeah? Well I nearly died on that mission! I'm not going on this one!"

"It's a pity you didn't die on that one, or the last one we had."

"What's that supposed to mean shorty?!"

"Guys! Is this really the time to be fighting?" Yusuke was sick of their picking on each other all the time. "Just try to get along for about two seconds?" He rubbed his head. "How are we supposed to find this castle thing anyway?" They were walking to a room. Botan floated over on her oar. "Come on Yusuke, Kuwabara, we have to get back to the living world." The oar began to rise, but then Botan turned at looked at Aniya. "Aniya, do you need a ride?" Aniya shook her head in reply. The oar blasted its way from the palace with a burst of light. 

"How do you plan on getting to the living world?" Kurama wanted to know.

Aniya smiled, "Same way I got here." She concentrated on her demonic blood. There was a light that grew around her. Slowly it got brighter and brighter until Hiei and Kurama had to shield their eyes with their hands. When the light faded, Aniya stood there looking exactly the same as she did before. 

Hiei snorted, "I guess it didn't work. Don't expect help from me or Kurama to get back to the living world."

"I didn't say I needed your help, and guess again." With that she raised and arm so Sani could find a secure purchase. Then Aniya began to run toward the open window. When she reached the wall, she did a somersault and landed on the sill. Turning, she looked at the two demons. "See you in living world." With that she jumped out of the window. 

Kurama and Hiei ran to the window and looked at each other in disbelief. "You don't think she'll try _falling_ to living world?" "I do not know Hiei. All I know is that no one could survive a fall like that." They both looked down at the clouds that hid the bottom. 

"Guys! What are you looking down there for? Is there something happening?" Two pairs of eyes flashed up and saw Aniya floating in mid-air, with wings. "The amazing thing about my wings is that they don't exist until I tell them to. All I have to do is prepare my body for them and then they come in at any time. It makes it easy to pull off stunts." She looked thoughtful, "Maybe I should have joined the circus." With that she flew off in a burst of light to the living world.

Kurama and Hiei disappeared in their own lights, quickly following Aniya's path.  

*****

Botan dropped the boys in the middle of the woods in the north. 'There, that should set them close enough for them to find it.' "Here you go boys! Have fun fighting Katomi!"

"Wait, you're not coming with us?"

"Yusuke, weren't you listening to Koenma? I'm not going on this mission. You have Aniya, remember?"

"Oh yeah."

"Bye!" Both boys looked as she flew off on her oar. "You know Urameshi, I'm not sure about having the Black Dragon on the team. I mean, you saw how easily she defeated us. What if she decides to turn on us?"

"And the chances of that are?" Kuwabara turned around to see Aniya standing there with her hands on her hips. "Katomi stole the stone from me, I left her when I stole the stone. What makes you think that I'd want to be related to her in any way?" Kuwabara froze and looked at his feet. "Well? Come on I want to hear your reasoning."

"…"

"That's what I thought." Aniya was about to ask Yusuke if he recovered from her attacks, but something held her back. 'Damn. This making friends business is hard. What am I supposed to do? Walk up and hug him or something? I'm guessing he isn't too thrilled with having me here either.' 

Yusuke watched as internal struggles were reflected on Aniya's face. "Hiei and Kurama are coming, right?"

Aniya jumped, surprised that he would talk to someone who had beat him with his own technique, and was a girl. "I think they were right behind me. I kind of lost them, so I can't really tell."

Yusuke looked surprised now. "You lost Hiei and Kurama? Man, you must be really fast in order to lose Hiei." Aniya stared, "I'm not that fast." 

Kuwabara looked at the girl in disbelief. "You're too damn modest. If I was as fast as you, I'd be shouting it to the world like that other shorty." Then a light bulb clicked in his head. "Oh, I get it. You don't want to be seen, so you pretend your powers are nothing, so people would ignore you, right?" Yusuke and Aniya looked at Kuwabara like he had gone insane. "Kuwabara, are you feeling okay?" "Never felt better Urameshi. Anyway, you don't have to worry about being modest. You're so short that most people are bound to miss you anyway."

Aniya's eye twitched. 'Does he have to rub it in?!' She smiled sweetly. "At least I have a diminished height, not a diminished intellect." Yusuke grinned. 'She's just like Hiei, but there's something different about her though. Can't place my finger on it…"

"What did you just say to me?!"

"Do you need a dictionary? Or perhaps a translator?"

"You're insulting me, aren't you?"

"Very good, Captain Obvious!"

"Captain who?"

"Never mind." She heard someone chuckling in the shadows. "I tell you Hiei, if you were a female teenager, that's what you'd be like." Kurama and Hiei stepped out of the shadows. "Don't compare me with that…thing Kurama. We are not equals."

Aniya smiled, 'Time for me to score one on the midget and give him a dose of his own medicine.' She thought briefly about what she knew of the Yu Yu Hakusho group. 'Ah ha, here's a good one to throw at him.' "You're right, Hiei. Koenma may regard us as equals, but this will be more like babysitting." She smiled sweetly again, then turned to Yusuke, "Have you figured out how to find Katomi's castle yet?"

Hiei was startled. 'How did she know that I said that? Could she have been there?' "You. How do you know that I said that?" Aniya gave him a look that clearly said, 'Isn't it obvious?' "I am a reincarnation of one of the saint beasts." The entire group looked at her sharply, grabbing whatever weapons they had at ready. "I was joking, my god. You people are so serious." She looked at Yusuke, "You still haven't figured out how to find her castle yet?"

Yusuke glared at her, "Let me guess: you know where it is, right?"

She nodded. "Yup, but I can't tell you."

"What?! Why not?"

She looked at him condescendingly. "Well, Katomi is no idiot. Somehow, when she set up to be taken by the authorities, she managed to erase the location of the castle from my mind. I'm still trying to figure out how she did it, but she did."

Yusuke looked up at the sky. "Great. What a great help you are."

Aniya pushed him. "Hey, I'm not done. I never said I couldn't get you guys there. I just said I couldn't tell you guys where it is."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

She shook her head. "No. You're three-eyed friend over there could find it easily." She paused as she saw the surprised look on all their faces. "He has a jagan eye, right? He can use that to find it."

"Problem." Hiei walked over to her. "This Katomi has hidden the location of the castle from all forms of scriers. How am I supposed to find a place that is hidden?"

She laughed. "That's the easy bit. Katomi may be no idiot, but she's no Einstein either. She'd be the type of person who would lock the house and provide the best security, but then forget to shut the windows. Katomi protects her house using magic spells. Magic is an advanced form of spirit energy. You can control spirit energy attacks and spells with the right techniques and training. It takes a while to learn how to use. As it happens, when she put the spell on the castle, she used what we call the blocking spell.

"For people with no spirit energy awareness, they just avoid the area because something tells them to stay away. Like in Hogwarts." Seeing their blank faces, she guessed they hadn't read Harry Potter. "Never mind. People with low spirit awareness don't see anything, like the castle is invisible because they aren't powerful enough to detect the magic. Beings with strong spirit energies, such as Yusuke and Kurama will get headaches if they come too close to the fortress. People with sensing abilities, like shorty and ugly over there, will see nothing."

"So what you're saying is that if me and Kurama walk around, and we get headaches, we're close by." Aniya shook her head. "You could do that, but it would take a long time, no? So what we do is we set shorty over there to work and scrying with his jagan eye. When I said he wouldn't see anything, I mean he wouldn't see anything. There would be a void. No air, birds, grass, stone. Nothing. It will look like a patch of white space. That's what I meant when I said she was no Einstein. She puts the most powerful spell to hide her castle, but in the process overdoes it so that anyone powerful enough will head to where they can't see anything."

Kurama nodded, "I see. So instead of seeing nothing, they see an absence of something. Somewhat like negative space." 

Aniya nodded. "It's really easy once you find it. There is no barrier because she thinks that her spell will keep everyone away, so she doesn't think she needs to actually prevent anyone from entering, Besides, not many people come knocking on her door."

Kuwabara looked at her, "So why can't I find it?" "You're too weak." "Hey!"

"Guys! Come on, don't start!" Yusuke asked, "Why can't you find it?" 

"If I tried to find it I would probably get knocked out. Remember how I said she erased the location from my mind? Well, the side effect of that spell is that if someone goes looking for that place, and there's a hiding spell on it, they are immediately in risk of going into a coma. The erasing spell is designed to prevent them from ever remembering where the place was, and will do anything to prevent them from finding it again."

Yusuke looked at Hiei. "Hiei, are you ready?" The little demon unwrapped his jagan eye and focused. "Found it."

He started to walk toward a path in the woods, but then he noticed that Kurama and Yusuke weren't following. "Come on, what are you waiting for? Scared?" They shook their heads. "We were wondering how much the headaches would affect us in battle." Aniya smiled brightly. "Oh, don't worry about that. My aura should push back anything that would affect you."

"But you're aura's weak! I can hardly feel it." Kuwabara insisted. "That's because I hide it. You can't sense it unless you've had training." "Yeah right." "Remember the Toguro brothers? You couldn't feel their energy until it was almost too late." "…" 

The group started following Hiei again. Yusuke walked next to Aniya. "How do you know this Katomi anyway?"

"Oh, she took me in when I was little and wandering around on the streets."

"You? You were wandering in the streets? How did that happen? Mom kick you out or something?"

Aniya stared at  her moving feet. "I never had any parents. They found me in an orphanage, more or less. I hated it there. The kids made fun of my hair and my eyes. Then one day, I got sick. It was a magical sickness and when I sneezed, my wings were involuntarily exposed. The people at the orphanage brought me to the hospital. They left me there. The doctors tried to remove my wings, but I managed to get out before anything happened. Then I started walking around the streets.

"I wandered until I was six. For those five years that I spent on the streets, I learned most of the martial arts stuff that I do now. There were gangs that tried to find me, and it was easy because my growing spirit aura was getting easier to notice. I stole a book from the library that told me how to conceal my energy. So when this nice lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to come home with her, she couldn't tell that I was stronger than she was. At that point, I was extremely distrustful of everyone. I thought the next person who found me was going to expose me, but I decided to take advantage of the situation.

"Katomi had a wonderful library. Every night or during the day when she wasn't looking, I would read her books. She taught me, so to speak, about magic. There was only one problem. She didn't know that I was as strong as I was. Every day, she would teach me things and I would pretend to struggle with them. She never got to teach me anything beyond the basic spells." Aniya counted them off on her fingers. "Invisibility, mind erasing, concealment, telekinesis. She couldn't teach me anything about healing, controlling, telepathy, or music. She was too weak."

Yusuke looked at her funnily, "Did you just say music? Music is magic? And what did you mean, she was too weak? She's obviously strong enough to use the stone, and so she has to be pretty damn strong." 

"Music and magic have more in common than you think. I can explain it to you later. Oh, and didn't Koenma tell you? Katomi can't use the stone. She doesn't have the power or the training."

Kuwabara, Yusuke and Kurama all stopped in shock. Kuwabara stood gaping. "What do you mean, she can't use the stone? If she can't use the stone, then why would she want it?"

Aniya continued walking, "In some of her books, the ones for the lower levels of magic, it says that the stone will give power to whoever wants it. But that's far from the truth. The stone tells the user how to harness power they already have. If someone who is took weak tries to use the stone, all their energy will be absorbed into the stone. The stone then uses that energy to teach the strong user how to harness their power. Chances are that she'll be just strong enough to keep from dieing, but she won't have the strength to actually use its full powers." She stopped. "Aren't you guys coming, or are the other midget and I the only ones on this mission?"

They started walking again. "Hiei have you found the place yet?" 

"Hn. A long time ago. It's getting there that's going to take a while."

Yusuke walked with Aniya again. "What's inside?"

Aniya looked at the sky. "Nothing much. A couple S-class demons, torture chambers, slaves willing to die for her and of course Katomi herself." Seeing him gape, she laughed. "I'm only joking! You guys, as I said, are way too serious. You need to get out more. I can only remember finding some things. Katomi has a twisted mind. What she'll do is challenge us with obstacles. Of course, to keep herself amused, she changes the obstacles constantly. Or rather, she has a bunch, but she only uses some at a time, so it seems like the challenges keep changing. I don't remember all of them, but I bet that I'll be able to identify them when we get there."

They walked in the forest some more. "I know this is kind of stupid to ask, your name's Yusuke, right?"

"Yup."

"Okay." 'I think that would be friend number two. Kurama and Yusuke. I wonder if Kurama was right about keeping themselves alive. I would hate for them to die to a weakling like Katomi. I also hope that I remember the secrets about the challenges. If I don't, then there could be a problem.' She stopped walking and nearly bumped into Hiei who had stopped walking as well. "We're here." She concentrated on the unconcealment spell and spread it to all the members of the group. Seeing their eyes widen as they stared at the castle, she finished the spell with a little extra punch so that the spell would remain. "Okay, are we ready?"

Kuwabara looked nervous. "You said she was weak right? Why is her aura so strong?"

"Come on ugly, figure it out. It takes a less energy and power to pretend to make an aura bigger than it is to hide a big aura. Look at the aura closely. It doesn't feel like an aura, does it? It seems like its almost too thin, right?" He nodded. "That's because it's only a spell. It's not real spirit energy. Still scared?"

"I wasn't scared."

Hiei shot back, "Of course you were. You're always scared."

"You can smell your fear." Aniya added for good measure.

"Come here shorty!"

"Which one?"

"Both! I'm going to squish him into a black blob and I'll squish you into….into…."

"Another black blob? Fat chance."

Kuwabara charged at the two short demons who both blurred out of the way, causing him to run into a try.

Kurama and Yusuke walked past. "Kuwabara, if you want to get connected to nature, then you should sign up for the nature club at school."

"Shut up Urameshi."

A/n: Please review…. J it would make me happy. I just got these really cool gloves that are all colorful….pretty colors….and I have just decided to make riding cloaks fashion statements. I wear my black one around all the time, other people should to. Happy New Year and nijert!


	4. Challenges

Disclaimer:**** Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Koenma, Botan, George and anything related to Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I also can't claim Nara Ska (she's my sister's) but Aniya, Sani, Sukeisa and Katomi are mine! You can't have them! HAHAHA!!!!! -.- ;

***** = change in point of view or a time warp 

_words like this, "this",_ or _'this'_ = a flashback/dream, dialogue and thoughts (respectively) in a dream/flashback

Dragons in Time 

Part Four: Challenges

The group approached the huge castle. Quite frankly, it looked like something that would have come from the Dark Ages in Europe, not an estate for a wealthy Japanese family. Watching from a nearby hill-top, the gang looked at the great stone fortress that they would have to penetrate. The castle was completely surrounded by ocean. It was like an island. Despite the fact that there were many stairs carved into the stones around the castle that apparently led to the fortress, there was no apparent way of actually getting to the stairs.

They looked at the waves crashing against the rocks until Aniya interrupted their thoughts. "Well, are you done looking at the stupid place already? I mean, it's only a castle. Haven't you seen castles before?"

Kurama looked at her, "It is not a matter of our having seen a castle before, I think it is more of a matter of how we are going to get there."

"Isn't it obvious? We get there the same way that we got here. Teleport." Hiei shot out. 

"We can't do that shorty! For one thing, how are Urameshi and I going to get over there? We can't teleport."

"That's because you're weak."

Aniya hated to point out that Kuwabara was right, but, "Umm…actually, you can't teleport."

Hiei turned on her, "And why not?"

"Katomi puts wards around the castle to alert her to large uses of spirit energy, i.e. teleporting. If you teleported, she would immediately put up what little barrier protection that she has. Then we wouldn't be able to see it at all."

Yusuke sighed, "So what are we going to do? I doubt any of us could swim there without being pounded against the rocks." The group took a moment to look at the waves crashing against the rocks around the castle. Aniya was once again, the voice of death, "There's two ways to get to the castle, swim or fly."

"But you told us we can't teleport."

"I said you couldn't teleport Kuwabaka, but I never said you couldn't fly. Use wings, then she cannot detect any abnormal levels of magic or spirit energy being used." Aniya finished.

"Ooo, wonderful strategy. Let's all fly," said Hiei sarcastically. "So what are you proposing, that we glue little fairy wings on our backs and use them to glide gracefully to our deaths? You're the only one with wings."

Kurama and Yusuke grinned. The thought of Hiei wearing little, sparkling fairy wings and trying to fly with them was hilarious. Then Kuwabaka stepped in, "Shorty, you must be seeing things. She doesn't have wings, see?" He waved his hands behind her back and showed that there was nothing to stop the movements of his arms. 

Hiei smirked, "Idiot, as usual you are wrong." Aniya closed her eyes for a moment before having glistening silver wings erupt from her back. Between the silver bones, were great folds of pearl white skin. She looked at her wings. "It would have been better if they were black, because then I could really be the Black Dragon, but oh, well." Turning, she faced the group, "I guess since none of you can fly, I'll have to fly you over individually." Seeing the painful expressions on all of their faces, she added, "Believe me, it'll be no picnic for me either. All of you will have to be carried. You're too big to sit on my back." 

"I am not being carried by you. You'll drop me!" Everyone in the group sighed at Kuwabara's fears. "Don't worry, I won't drop you. I can't because you're not heavy enough. Besides, just because I'm small doesn't mean I'm weak. I thought we'd already been through this." She glared fiercely at the group. "Any volunteers to go first?" Rolling her eyes, she was about to say, "Okay, I'll have to choose for you," but Kurama stepped forward. "I will go first."

Aniya smiled. "Stand there and if you don't like heights, close your eyes." She picked him up from under his arms and began to flap her wings. Slowly she began to rise, Kurama in hand. 'Please let Katomi not see me…please let her not see me…' Aniya knew that if Katomi was in a bad mood that she'd be staring out one of the windows, then it wouldn't matter that they hadn't teleported. She knew it was a risky business flying in the first place, but she had to try. Looking, she tried to find a place on some of the higher rocks, where she could put Kurama down.

Setting him down she said, "I think it is needless to say 'wait here'." He grinned and nodded. Aniya spread her wings and glided back to the spot on the hill where the other three were waiting. "Okay, who's next?" Yusuke pushed Kuwabara forward. "He'll go next." "I never said that Urameshi! Can I swim instead?"

"Do you think that you'd have a better chance of surviving if you went that way? Fool." Hiei said to the baka.

"Okay, okay. I'll go. Can I ride on your back instead?" He saw her shake her head and turned around. He closed his eyes tight and would not open them, even when the wind whistled through his head and he felt the dips as Aniya did some stunt flying. 'She's doing this just to torture me.' He was more than happy to be back on the ground again. Kuwabara quickly moved to stand away from the edge of the large rock where Aniya had put Kurama only moments before. She flew off to get the last two.

*****

Katomi sat in her room in the top tower, staring at the small blue stone that was sitting on a pedestal covered in velvet. 'Why won't the stone give me power? I guess the books were wrong.' Clenching her fists she walked over to a window. 'Why won't it give me the power? I am strong, strong enough  for it.' Looking out over the water she saw a speck in the sky. It was heading away from the castle, to a small hill. 'Looks a bit big to be a bird. Better send Nara Ska to check it out.' Raising a hand, she concentrated hard and made a little pull bell by the door give a tug. Within seconds, a demon entered the room.

"Nara Ska. It seems as though we have some guests that have come without a proper invitation. Please, see them the way out." The demon nodded and bowed out of the room. 'If that fool Aniya was stupid enough to try to come here to reclaim the stone, I might as well have some fun at her expense. Nara Ska will sort them out.'

*****

Aniya landed next to Yusuke and Hiei. "Who's going next?" She stood facing Hiei and Yusuke, away from the ocean. "If you don't hurry up than Katomi might find us. We need to be fast in order to actually get next to the castle. If we aren't quick enough…" She trailed off, feeling a familiar presence near-by. 'She's seen us. She's sent Nara Ska.' "Damn! She's seen us! I'll have to take both of you at once." Seeing the looks of confusion on both Hiei and Yusuke's faces she yelled. "Come on, Hiei, get on my back, Yusuke stand still." They didn't move and she was getting frustrated. "We have to make it to the castle because Nara Ska is coming. Hiei, look for her with your eye. Come on!" Grabbing Hiei she flung him on her back, praying that he'd have enough sense to hold on. She picked up Yusuke and began to fly frantically toward the rock where she had left Kurama and Kuwabara. 

Yuske yelled up to her, "Let me get on your back and I can use sprit gun!"

Aniya shouted back, "Try to keep her from touching you! I'll explain everything once we're inside. Whatever you do, don't let her touch you!" She was very close to the rock. "Dammit, I can't carry you two fast enough. Yusuke, I'm going to throw you onto the rock. Can you make it?" "No!" 

"I  can." Aniya cocked her ears back toward Hiei, since she obviously couldn't turn to look. "I can make the jump fast enough so that she can't see me." Something blurred toward the rock and Aniya suddenly shot forward, relieved of Hiei's weight. 

'Just a little bit farther! Come on you stupid girl! You can make it!' With the last burst of energy, she pushed herself forward and dropped Yusuke on the rock. Whirling around, she put whatever she could into a spirit energy shield. "Get inside!" The group hurried up the steps. 

Nara Ska approached. She was a large demon with red eyes. Her claws were constantly covered in blood. No one had ever bothered to ask her if it was real or not. Gliding through the air, she paused about ten feet from Aniya's shield. She began to create an orb of electricity between her hands. Aiming the attack at Aniya, she whipped the thunder ball. Aniya tensed herself, preparing for a hash attack, but then…

"SPIRIT GUN!" 

Yusuke hadn't followed the group. "What are you doing?!" yelled Aniya. "Go with the others, I'll be there in a minute!" Yusuke grinned at her, "I'm helping out a friend!" Aniya was about to smile, when she realized that the attack was still heading toward them. 'Oh shit. We have to divert the attack.' Aniya smiled back. "I'll drop the shield so you can get a more direct hit, but aim to hit the orb—not her. You can't let it hit her. Ready?"

"What do you mean hit the orb and not her? I thought we were trying to get rid of her!" Aniya looked at him, "If your spirit energy hits her, your life is in danger. You'd have to change the path of your attack, fast!"  She saw Yusuke nod as he powered up his spirit gun. "Three…two…one…now!!" "SPIRIT GUN!!"

The spirit gun attack hit the electrical orb right on, and passed right through it. Aniya and Yusuke gaped as the electrical orb was coming straight for them. "Get on my back, quick!" Yusuke jumped on her back and Aniya took to the air once again. The rocks where they had been standing were now completely destroyed. 

'Thank goodness we were fast enough,' thought Aniya. The spirit gun attack was still heading for Nara Ska, but Aniya could tell that the demon was going to avoid dodging it. "Hit your attack with another attack, now!" 

"What? Why?"

"Don't ask, just shoot!" Yusuke released a "SHOT GUN!!!" Light filled the sky and when it slowly faded away to reveal the blue sky, Nara Ska was gone. "Hey! Where'd she go?" 

"I think she is gone." 'For now.' Aniya smiled at her friend as he cheered. 'I won't tell him just yet. This mission needs a little victory now and then.' She flew over to a crevice in the huge rocks around the castle. The rest of the group was waiting at the opening of a small narrow cave.

"Urameshi, where'd you go?"

"We had something to attend to."

"Oh, like what?"

"Like something that's none of your business, that's what."

"Urameshi…"

"Just shut up you fool."

"I wasn't talking to you, was I shorty?"

*****

Katomi looked into her mirror. 'So, Aniya. You have come to get the stone back, but with friends? Hmm…perhaps it is time to see if you are still in shape.' "Timbles, come." A butler apparition appeared at her side. "Yes, mistress Katomi?" "See to it that the contests are operating again and then bring the mirror to the guests. They have just arrived at the tunnel entrance."

"Yes mistress. I assume that you wish to communicate with the guests?"

"Go."

****

"Aniya, where is the entrance?" Kurama was looking around the cave. "The stairs ended here and there seems to be no entrance into the castle. Are the stairs duds?"

Aniya shook her head. "Nope, the entrance is right in the back of this crevice. It's kind of tricky to find. You have to go in single file, but I can guide you." Yusuke walked up to the front of the cave and started walking in. Kurama followed him. Hiei walked in next and Aniya started to walk, but bumped into Kuwabara.

"Come on, Kuwabaka. Are you scared of the dark or something?" Yusuke stopped the group partially because he wanted to see what was going on at the end of the time, but also because he _was_ walking in pitch black darkness and he couldn't find the entrance. "Aniya? What's going on?"

"The idiot doesn't seem to want to go in."

Kuwabara frowned. "I'm not scared or anything, it's just that I don't want to be next to that stupid midget." Aniya sighed. "Fine, I'll go between you two, then there won't be any problems." She saw him shaking his head. "What's the matter, you said you didn't want to be next to Hiei and if I'm between you then you're not next to him."

"Actually I meant I didn't want to be next to you." Aniya sighed exasperatedly. "Oh come on, what have I got? Cooties?" Yusuke chuckled as Kuwabara answered, "No, you might attack me." 

"I'd be in front of you baka! How could I attack you if I'm in front of you?!"

 "I dunno. Maybe you have psychic powers and could control me, then tell me to smash my head against the rocks." 

Giving him a plain look, Aniya walked into the cave. "Oh be serious. Like smashing your head against a rock would help you any." Kuwabara trudged after her.

"Aniya? Where do we go now? I can't see anything in the dark."

"Pity none of us smokes isn't it?" No one but Yusuke got the joke. "I'll explain later. Okay, Yusuke. There should be a perfectly smooth stone in front of you. Or rather, it's a large, smooth boulder. What you need to do is imagine that it's a real rock, a real rock that would hurt you if you walked into it. Then you need to walk into it."

"What?! Are you crazy?!"

"Nope. As I've said, Katomi has a twisted mind. By doing this on all the entrances, she insures that no one comes in. Some one would have to be an idiot or a genius in order to focus all their thoughts on smashing into a rock. It will be a little painful, but I think you can deal with it."

"Of course it's going to be painful, it's a rock!!"

"Deal with it. Just walk into it."

"Isn't there another way?" 

Aniya rolled her eyes in the darkness and replied sarcastically, "We could go back out there and find another entrance," she paused as she heard Yusuke say, "Well, why don't we do that instead?" and continued, "but the minute we try to turn around, the walls will close in on us and the rocks on the ceiling will fall as one, like the Gate of Betrayal. We would have to hold them up and this time there is no switch and in any event, Hiei is all the way back here. I doubt we would survive." She looked over her should at Kuwabara. "Baka, this means, don't turn around and try to leave or we're all dead."

He froze. "So you're saying we're stuck in a tunnel that will collapse on us if we try to leave?" 

"Yes. That's what I just said."

Kuwabara immediately panicked. "Urameshi, go through the rock right now! Who cares if it hurts? Just go!"

"Okay…Okay…I'm going. Don't freak out." He faced the rock that he couldn't see in the darkness. 'It's a very real rock….it's a very real rock…it's a very real rock…dammit, this is going to hurt like hell…here I go.' Yusuke jumped at the rock, and instantly was smacked against stone. "Hey, Aniya. It didn't work!" He turned around to find that he was on the other side of a wall. Looking around, he saw that he was standing on a bunch of stairs. 'Maybe it did work.' 

Yusuke watched as Kurama walked calmly through it and then as Hiei blurred past the barrier. Aniya walked in and turned around. "Now all we have to do is wait for the baka." On the other side, Kuwabara was trying to convince himself that it _wasn't _in fact a rock, and it wouldn't hurt. It wasn't working very well. Turning around, he thought about racing to the entrance of the cave, to find another door. 

Aniya frowned. "I bet the idiot is convincing himself that the rock isn't…" She stopped suddenly. "I don't believe it. Baka!" She began to run toward the wall again, disappearing, she reappeared a minute later with Kuwabara in tow. "Baka!! How could you even think of doing something like that! It's a good thing you're such an idiot or otherwise I wouldn't have been able to drag you through in time!"

"In time? What are you talking about Aniya?"

Kurama answered. "I believe she means that Kuwabara was nearly crushed in the tunnel."

"What?"

"Isn't it obvious? The idiot tried to leave and the tunnel began to fall." Hiei explained impatiently. "Stupid as always."

"Hey, just because I didn't want to smash myself into the rocks…" he turned to Aniya. "What do you mean, 'it's a good thing you're such an idiot or otherwise'? I'm not an idiot!" She smiled evilly. "Well, idiotic minds are slightly easier to control than intelligent people." He stared at her with his mouth open.

"You said that you couldn't control my mind!"

"Actually, you will find that I said that smashing your head against some rocks wouldn't help you any. As you can see, I was right." Turning to the rest of the group, she looked up at the ceiling. There was a ghost like thing dropping from it. Oddly enough, if it had been human, it would have looked exactly like a miffed English butler. 

"Mistress Katomi sends a message." He held up the mirror and inside there was a lady with pink eyes staring at them. "Ah, Aniya. I see that you are trying to steal from me again. Don't think I didn't miss the fact that you took my favorite jade dragon."

"Nice to see you again Katomi. As you can see, I'm no little girl anymore. I'm taking back my stone."

"It's not your stone, but since you seem to be so persistent, I will give you the stone. All you have to do is find me and take it." Suddenly, her face got a lot closer in the mirror. "It won't be easy. You know what I mean." She laughed as Aniya clenched her fists. "Come for me. I'm in the watch tower." The butler and the mirror disappeared into smoke.

Yusuke looked at Aniya. "What did she mean when she said it won't be easy? You do know what she's talking about right?"

Aniya nodded and remembered. "Katomi has a twisted mind, as I've said about a million times already. When she was training me, she set up challenges. They were just randomly placed around the castle, right when you least expect them. She was proud of her stupid challenges. They got harder and harder. Then one day, she decided to test me by putting me through an obstacle course of sorts."

She began to run up the stairs. "Whatever you do, don't touch anything. Only step where I step. These stairs are safe, but keep your spirit energy awareness on the hype or otherwise we might all go falling to our deaths. Or we would go falling and wish for our deaths."

Yusuke and Hiei took the lead. Kurama ran next to Aniya. "What sort of challenges did she set up?" Aniya thought. "I can't remember them right now. I'll probably remember them when I see them. Oh…the tunnel we just came out of, that was one of the challenges. I had to get through the wall before the rocks crushed me. I wasn't given the option of choosing whether the rocks fell on me or not."

"Do you know where we're supposed to be going?" Yusuke yelled back to her, to which she replied, "Keep running until you hit the top. There should be a courtyard of types. The first challenge will be there." As Aniya ran, she remembered the first challenge.

"This is Nara Ska. She is your opponent because she is blocking the way to the rest of the challenges." Katomi turned to face the tall demon dressed in red and black. "Nara Ska, you may use whatever methods you see fit." The demonic girl with the red eyes nodded. As soon a Katomi had walked out of range, Naraska attacked. Well, she opened her mouth and white clouds began to pour out of it.

_"Aniya, Nara Ska is a special kind of opponent. If you attack her with spirit energy, she uses it as a link to the person. She will absorb all your spirit and life energy, until there is none left. She uses this energy to create followers who do her bidding. These followers will continue to appear until you destroy her, and she cannot be destroyed unless you use magic."_

_Aniya pretended to be outraged, she didn't want to expose her true power just yet. "That's not fair! I don't know any magic spells that would hurt her! How can you do this to me?"_

_"Very easily. Go on, try to fight. Attack her with spirit energy or attack her physically. Either way she can use it as a link to kill you."_

The group ran to the top of the stairs and pushed open the door. Piling out, they looked around the deserted courtyard, Hiei smirked. "I thought you said there would be a challenge."

"Oh, there is. She's coming."

"She?!" Aniya nodded and then Nara Ska appeared in the empty courtyard. Yusuke looked shocked. "I thought we had killed her!" Shaking her head, Aniya explained, "Nara Ska is unique. She cannot be hurt by any of the normal methods, such as spirit energy attacks. When you  use spirit energy against her or when you touch her, she can use your attacks as link to your life energy. She drains it from you and uses it to create spirit warriers."

As she spoke, Nara Ska opened her mouth and spirit things began to flow out. "You can't touch the spirit warriors either."

"So how are we supposed to fight things that we can't fight?" Yusuke demanded.

"Use swords."

"I thought you said you can't them."

"Yes baka, but a sword isn't you touching them, is it? Unless you've grown yourself an organic sword, a sword isn't flesh, so they can't connect to it."

"So you're saying that Urameshi and I have no way of fighting them?" Aniya nodded. "Personally, I would probably let Kurama take care of this. His rose whip should keep him far away." She turned to face the fellow midget in the group. "Hiei, if you think that you can hit them without being touched, go for it with your katana." 

"Hn."

Aniya proceeded to take out a pair of ninja stars that seemed to be as black as the night. She waved them at Nara Ska. "Nara Ska, remember these?" For a moment, it seemed that Nara Ska hesitated, then she stopped making the spirits. Aniya grinned as she remembered how she managed to defeat Nara Ska the first time…

"Attack her with spirit energy or attack her physically. Either way she can use it as a link to kill you."

_'Damn Katomi!' Aniya looked as the spirit people surrounded her. Then she watched as Nara Ska took out a pair of ninja stars. She proceeded to throw them at Aniya, who flipped out of the way. Nara Ska smiled and Katomi continued her little exposition._

_"Those ninja stars are very special. They are designed to separate the soul from the body. No one can be hit by them and survive. They gravitate back to the owner, but can track down an opponent."_

_The ninja stars whirled toward Aniya. This time she dodged, but hit one with her sword, so it flew off course. It tried to twirl back to Nara Ska, but it was off course. So it flew past her into a corner._

_Katomi laughed, "You can't hit them to hit Nara Ska. They will stop in time because she commands them and she has plenty more of them." Nara Ska revealed five more stars. "Shit." Aniya cartwheeled and somersaulted out of the way, but only just. One of them nicked her pony tail. _

_Aniya kneeled on the ground and slowly focused on the ninja stars. 'They are controlled by her spirit energy. They're not controlled by telekinesis.' A grin crawled across her face. 'That means I can control her attack!' She stood again as the stars came toward her. Holding out a hand, she could hear Katomi laughing at her attempts._

_"Do you think you can stop them with telekinesis? That's funny! These aren't affected by telekinesis! Since you can't control her spirit energy, you cannot control them!"_

_Aniya smiled smugly. 'That's what you think.' The ninja stars stopped and dropped to the ground. Katomi stopped laughing. "Where did you learn to control like that? Answer me!" Hearing no reply, she yelled to the other demon. "Nara Ska, attack with everything!" _

Nara Ska  called the ninja stars back to her, now she was alerted to the controlling powers that Aniya was showing. Carefully, she reinforced them with her energy. She was so focused on making the ninja stars unstoppable, that she didn't notice the rising ninja star. Throwing the ninja stars, she thought that there was no way that Aniya could stop them.

_She was wrong._

Not only was Aniya able to stop them, but she aimed the ninja star she had been controlling telekinetically at Nara Ska. Nara Ska fell as the ninja star hit her head. Light burst from her as she faded into nothing. All the spirit people disappeared but the ninja stars still came at Aniya. But they were slowly fading as well as slowing down. Aniya grabbed two of them before they disappeared. In her hands were two normal ninja stars, barely visible. Those ninja stars would become some of her favorite weapons in the Arena….

Waking back up to the present, Aniya tossed one of the ninja stars to Yusuke and another to Kuwabara. Using her mind, she connected to them and the other two, so make sure that Nara Ska didn't get the plan. 'Hiei and Kurama need to fight the spirit people, to be a distraction. Yusuke and Kuwabara, when Nara Ska throws the stars at me, throw those at her. They should stop her.' She could hear the agreements, except for one, 'What about you? How are you going to stop the ninja stars she throws at you?' She answered, 'Don't worry Yusuke, I can always dodge them, but please don't miss. GO!'

Hiei and Kurama immediately began attacking the spirit people as Yusuke and Kuwabara ran so that Yusuke was on one side of Nara Ska and Kuwabara was on the other. Nara Ska threw the ninja stars at Aniya. 'Just like last time,' Aniya thought, 'shows that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.' She managed to dodge all of the ninja stars and Kuwabara and Yusuke threw their stars at her. Aniya landed in a crouch and expected a lot of light everywhere. So, naturally she and the rest of the group were shocked when Nara Ska caught the two ninja stars and sent the others after Aniya. She was barely able to dodge them.

"Yusuke! Someone, think of something!" Aniya was flipping like there was no tomorrow. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the ninja stars to get off her trail. "Don't hit the ninja stars, because they'll go after you!" Her friends couldn't help her because none of them could see her, except Hiei and all they saw was a black blur. 

Kurama and Hiei kept attacking the spirit people. "What do you think we should do?" Hiei jumped up and hit one of the ninja stars, but instead of attacking him, it continued on its path to Aniya.

"I  have an idea Urameshi! I have an idea!" Kuwabara was jumping out of the way as the black blur sped toward him. "Good Kuwabara! Spit it out before Aniya gets butchered into ribbons!" 

"Hit the ninja stars so they go flying, but attack them at the same time so there's multiple targets. Then Hiei can run around. I'm getting a vibe from that bitch over there. I think she's controlling the path. Right now there is only one black blur, but what happens if there are two?"

Hiei took the hint, and began to run, saying, "Baka, if this doesn't work I'm going to kill you."

"Urameshi, hit the stars with your spirit gun, that should get them off Aniya's tracks." Yusuke aimed at the ninja stars and they went flying back to Nara. Nara caught them deftly and then looked around. With two black blurs to watch for now, she did the only thing that she could think of: take out more ninja stars. After throwing in six more, both Aniya and Hiei cursed because each one of them had six stars after them now.

"Idiot!" They both yelled. Aniya shouted, "It didn't work baka!"

Kuwabara thought again. (My he's doing a lot of thinking today, isn't he?) Suddenly he yelled, "Shorty! Drop your sword!"

"Which one?" Aniya shouted and Hiei yelled back, "No way!"

"Aniya, just drop your sword!" Yusuke yelled. When she asked why Kuwabara answered, "You have to trust me on this."

"I trusted you with the other plan didn't I? Look where that got me!" But she dropped her sword, "It's not like I could all six away in time to fight htem anyway." Kuwabara ran and caught the sword. 

"Urameshi, I'm going to attack that Nara person. Have Kurama attack from one side, then while she's not looking, knock her out with Aniya's sword. Once she's wounded I'll attack."

"With what?"

"Spirit sword." He held up a hand to stop Yusuke's objections. "I know what I'm doing." Yusuke turned to Kurama who had just appeared beside them, having fought off a bunch of the spirit people. "You know what to do?" Kurama nodded. "Let's go."

By this time, Aniya and Hiei were annoyed because their companions were standing around talking while they were running from deadly ninja stars. Aniya yelled at them, "Stop standing there and talking idiots!" Hiei decided that he was running, so he aimed for Nara. Whipping out his sword, he slashed at her before whizzing by her and landing in a graceful crouch five feet away. Turning, he expected to see her explode from the wounds. His eyes widened as he saw that she had set up a shield before his first attack.

Now all twelve stars were coming at Aniya and she was having a hell of time dodging all of them. So Hiei ran at Nara from one side with his katana, Kurama from the other side with his rose whip. Nara smiled because she didn't think it would hard to deflect one whip and one sword. What she failed to see was Yusuke coming up behind her with Aniya's sword. The one thought that ran through Nara's mind as she felt the steel go through her was, 'They aren't seriously trying to kill me with a regular sword are they?' Then the next thought that she thought as Kuwabara came at her with the spirit sword was 'Fool, doesn't he know that he'll die.' 

Kuwabara's sword hit her and disappeared. Kuwabara seemed shocked for a moment before he fell to his knees. "The spirit sword, it's gone…" Nara smiled but then her smile faded as light erupted from her body. Looking down she saw beams of light and energy coming from her. She looked at the smiling human before her and her last thought was 'shit.'

The group shielded their eyes as Nara exploded. All her energy and spirit people went in every direction. Kuwabara's energy returned to him and he stood up again. Aniya had stopped running from the stars. Trying to catch two of them, they exploded too. "Damn! Those were my favorites! Oh well, you can't have everything." Walking over to the group she reclaimed her sword from Yusuke. "Well, Kuwabara, you had me worried for a moment there. Maybe smashing your head against the rocks did make you smarter."

Kuwabara smiled and said, "What can I say, I guess I'm just smart."

Then Aniya's smiled turned into a glower as she yelled, "But it sure took you long enough to figure something out!! It's a good thing I'm so fast or otherwise you guys would have a butchered dracon and no one guide you through the rest of the challenges."

Kuwabara's smile faded. "You mean there's more?" 

Aniya rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, "Nooo…I was only joking."

Kuwabara sighed out of relief and Hiei muttered, "Baka."

*****

Katomi's fists clenched as she saw the group head over to the tower. 'How could they have defeated Nara? Well I'll let you know Aniya that the games have only just begun.' "Timbles!" Once again, her butler appeared. "Yes, Mistress Katomi?" "Make sure those bastards find their way to the fire hall." "Yes miss."

'You and that other midget are plenty fast, but what about your other friends, will they be fast enough?' She laughed as she prepared herself to watch Aniya and her companions die.

A/N: Hoped you liked this chapter. Yeah! I got one review from someone who didn't review before. Kiakyodragonlover, thank you for your review. Keep a watch out. Katomi might be in for some surprises. 


	5. Water and Fire

Disclaimer: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Koenma, Botan, George and anything related to Yu Yu Hakusho are not mine. I also can't claim Nara Ska (she's my sister's) but Aniya, Sani, Sukeisa and Katomi are mine! You can't have them! HAHAHA!!!!! -.- ;

A/N: Timbles is another character from another one of my stories, so you can't him either.

Dragons in Time Part 5: Fire and Water 

"Baka…of course there's more challenges! You don't think that Katomi would just give up the stone like that, do you? I thought you were getting smarter, but I guess I was wrong."

"You know something, shorty? I'm getting tired of you saying I'm stupid all the time. Can you give it a break?"

Aniya humpfed and started to walk toward some stairs that led downward. Yusuke looked confused (again.) "Hey! Aniya! Where are you going?"

"To get the stone, of course."

He looked at the stars that she was going to take and the stairs that led up to a tower. "But didn't she say that she'd be in the tower? So shouldn't we take the stairs that go up?"

Aniya shook her head. "Give her about two seconds and…" she paused, while Timbles materialized in front of her, "…and she sends her devoted Mr. Timbles to block the way." Turning to the butler apparition she said lazily, "Let me guess: fire and water? Or are you here to say that we can get to the songs right now?"

The butler bowed. "Mistress Katomi requests you complete the challenges before facing her." Then he vanished in a puff of smoke. Aniya beckoned to the rest of the group and they began to climb down the steep stairs. Kurama took the opportunity to ask about something he'd been wondering about for a while.

"Forgive me for asking, but what relation does music have with fighting?"

Aniya nearly stopped in her tracks. She slapped her forehead. "That's right! I totally forgot to explain the magic to you." She continued walking, thinking of where to begin. 

"Well, magic is a different form of energy. It's not spirit, life or miko energy. It's kind of hard to explain. Have you ever heard of the magic of theater?" Seeing his funny look she took it that he hadn't, "Well, some people say that when they get on stage to sing, dance, play or perform, they can do things that they normally couldn't or wouldn't do in regular life. Like stage fighting. The swords aren't real, and they would normally get killed in a fight. But on stage, they can sword fight like a regular pirate, because even though it's staged, they find the energy to make it look like it's real, and to the actors, sometimes it does become real, in a sense. The stage, wherever it is, is like it's own little world.

"Anyway, that's the magic of theater, where, for people who have exceptional control over their own spirit energies can train their magic energy to do things, like spells or attacks. There are basically three kinds of magic: song, dance and drama. Dance is usually for fighting, where if there is music, people can fight, but the fighting is choreographed in a sense. Basically they can fight, flip sword fight like the best of them, and they can do amazing things like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. All they have to do is train to hear silent music in their head. I don't use this to fight, but if I need some extra power I can. There are certain moves that you have to learn that you wouldn't normally learn. Moves that are based on existing dance moves.  It's like learning karate, but with music involved. It's the middle magic.

"Songs are for the small spells, such as  healing, invisibility, and minor telepathy. Songs are for weak spells that don't require much power. " She grinned, "Songs are the weakest of the three magics because even a fool can sing a song and have it work wonders. Normal humans can create emotions and make fake spells that have great effects, so how easy is it for a demon to do so? Telepathic songs normally aren't very powerful, it just makes you get caught up in the song, and then, if the song ends, you snap out too. It isn't hard to break from those trances, though.

"Drama is the last type of magic. This is for the big stuff. It takes the longest amount of time to train. As I said, anyone can learn to sing and dance. Drama and acting takes a little bit extra. Drama is for telekinesis, invisibility, controlling, and even creation. Drama takes a lot of work and can only be used in certain circumstances. You have to learn the right movements, when to use which spells. Basically, it doesn't work unless your doing it for an audience, because you have to make it part of the theater magic. If you're alone, it's really hard to do it." She smirked, "Of course, I can but that's because I trained myself. So I don't even have to do the dramatics." 

Aniya looked at him, "Am I confusing you?"

Kurama shook his head. "Does Katomi know drama or dance?"

"No. She's too weak for acting, but she has something in her blood. In the human world, when a human child can do amazing things, they call them a prodigy. Demons have sort of the same thing. Katomi has a flair for music. If you've a natural talent for one of the particular branches of magic, you can do spells beyond that level. Since Katomi has some power for music and song, she can do some drama and dance spells. Mostly, her power is minor telepathy with songs, because she can trance you and unless you know how to fight back, you might not break from the trance."

"Could she use the power of the stone to increase her power?" Kurama was clearly thinking this through. "I know that you said that she couldn't use the stone, but is there some way that she could have found more power?"

They had reached the bottom of the stairs and they entered a dark room. 

Aniya shrugged, "I don't really know. It hasn't exactly been a hobby of mine to track down cruel ladies who are no threat to me. So, personally, all I know about her is what I remember."

"Then I hope you can remember how to get through Fire and Water Aniya. It would be a pity for you to come so far for a visit and then not actually see me."

Aniya looked around and found Timbles again using her spirit awareness. "Timbles, come down here! I can't see the freaking mirror if you're hanging around the ceiling all day." She waited for the butler to come to the ground, so the mirror was at eye level for Aniya, (so everyone else had to crouch to look at her). "Here me out Katomi…you don't think I can make it through these stupid obstacles of yours? Well you're wrong. I trained on these obstacles, goddammit! What do you take me for…an incompetent fool?"

Katomi laughed. "No, I know that you will do just fine my dear…" she paused to see how angry Aniya got at the use of the term "my dear". Getting the reaction she expected she continued, "I was merely concerned with the welfare of your friends. Can they get through fire?"

Yusuke whispered to Aniya, "What is this fire anyway and why is it so dark in here?"

Katomi heard him and answered, "You want to know what the fire is? Let me turn on the lights for you." Suddenly, the room they were standing in was revealed. It became obvious, even to Kuwabara, why this challenge was called fire. There was a huge lava pit in the middle of the room. It looked as long as a football field. Then, beyond the pit, was a floor that looked like it was twice the size of the lava pit. Katomi began to explain the challenge. "I'll take pity of you and explain the rules, especially since Aniya's never played with fire like this before."

Aniya turned back to the mirror. "What do you mean?! All you have to do is cross the freaking stones. You have to be fast enough because they crumble under your step. That was it."

"Aniya, Aniya, Aniya. Do you think that I would be satisfied with something that easy? This is a whole new level of playing. It'll make what you did look like hopping on rocks in a kiddy pool." She turned her attention to the whole group. "I designed this room to be a test for speed and agility. I have no doubt that some of you would be fine with it—the way it is. The goal is to get everyone across the room and out the door before the temperature rises too much. Once the heat gets beyond a certain point, it begins to boil demonic blood. Long before that, the humans would have been dead because their lungs would have been incinerated by the hot fumes. So all you have to do to get is cross the lava pit by stepping on the rocks, but you have to be careful because once you step on a rock, you have barely a second to get to another one because it crumbles. Once a rock crumbles, it's gone. The entire group needs to be on the other side of the room in order for the door to open."

Hiei sniffed disdainfully, "Sounds easy enough. I don't have time to be playing stupid games like this!" He began to run, but was stopped by a huge wall of flames. Turning around he saw Katomi laughing. 

"It isn't this easy. Since I know that this group has certain abilities, I'm changing the rules. Raising the stakes, you might call it. No teleporting. If you do, the temperature will rise to its full potency almost immediately. So the demons would die instantly. Oh, and Aniya. Don't think your wings will work either. For added precaution, there will be random fireballs falling from the ceiling. Not enough to hit people doing the challenge correctly, but enough to burn off those lovely silver-white wings of yours."

"It doesn't sound so bad." Yusuke remarked. Aniya turned to glare at him. "Shut up," she hissed, this is no time to be macho spirit detective." Yusuke was about to yell at her for being a bitch when the real bitch spoke again.

"You don't think this is challenging enough? I can change that." Katomi snapped her fingers and a bunch of the stepping stone disappeared. "Okay, let me make it more for your level. You have three minutes to get across, without being burnt. There are enough rocks for everyone, but they will disappear after two minutes. So you'd better be quick about getting across. Once everyone is across, you have to break the code for the door in one minute. Everyone must be out in three minutes because at the end of the two and half minutes, the temperature will be too hot for the humans. At the end of the three minutes, every living thing will be destroyed. In three minutes the temperature will be too hot, the lava will overflow and the door will be locked. Any questions?"

The butler disappeared and a little timer appeared on the wall. "Go."

Everyone looked at everyone else. "How the hell are we supposed to do this?"

Aniya thought fast. "Have Kurama go first, he can break the code on the door. Then the baka and the Yusuke go across, so if they need to get out they can. Then Hiei and I can get across since we're the fastest." Kurama nodded and nimbly jumped across the pit, trying to touch the least amount of stones that he could. "You next baka and don't step on too many stones or I'll have to kill you." Kuwabara jumped over the stones, nearly falling in once or twice.

Aniya nodded to Yusuke who ran across. She looked at the remaining stones, then at the timer. It said there was twenty seconds left before the stones disappeared. She looked at Hiei, "Do you want to be last, or not? We have seventeen seconds."

"You go. I'll get across no problem."

"Fine." Aniya jumped across in about ten seconds (it was a very big room.) Hiei waited for her to start running across the second part of the room. Looking at the timer, it said that he had ten seconds before all the stones disappeared. Running, he blurred over the pit just in time. He began to run across the huge floor, but he was stopped by huge flames, again. He could hear Katomi laughing. "Let's make this more interesting for you because you're the fast one. Don't touch the flames, you'll have to jump and pray there's something to land on the other side!"

Now that everyone was across the pit, the second timer began. They had sixty seconds to cross the huge floor. By this time is was also get very hot. The lava was starting to seep across the huge floor. Kurama broke the code just under thirty seconds. Yusuke and Kuwabara ran out the door because their lives depended on it. Kurama turned around and saw Aniya running toward the door. "Aniya! Where's Hiei?"

She looked behind her, and saw him surrounded by flames. "Hiei! What are you doing, we have twenty five seconds! Stop fooling around!"

Hiei looked at her. "Do you think it's my choice to be surrounded by flames? She said I can't touch the flames."

Aniya yelled back, "Since when have you obeyed rules? You're not seriously thinking that the fire will really hurt you? It's fake!"

Hiei frowned. 'I don't trust this stupid bitch. She tried to kill me before, but I think I can handle a little flames!' He went to walk through, but was thrown back. 'What the hell?' Then he heard the stupid Katomi again.

"I said jump! There's a barrier outside of the flames, you have to jump!" She laughed again. (She does a lot of laughing.)

Hiei cursed. 'Damn her.' He went to jump and managed to get over the top. Now there were three seconds for him and Aniya to run like hell for the door.

"Come on Hiei!"

"Just run, stupid bitch!"

"What did you call me?"

"RUN!" 

Kurama was standing at the door, it was starting to shut. Aniya managed to flip and slide under the door. She got out of the way as the door started to close again. It was about to hit the bottom when Aniya stuck her sword under it. She yelled, "Hiei , but your sword under too!" Another katana was forced under the door. Turning, she yelled to Kuwabara. "Baka, Yusuke, grab the door and pull up!" They did and by some chance they managed to open it enough for Hiei to roll under, and for both him and Aniya to grab their swords. 

The door slammed down and the group sat on the ground in various points of exhaustion. They looked around at all the doors. There were five in all, each with a different symbol."

"I see you made it past the fire pit, but how good are you at guessing games?" Katomi laughed and the butler disappeared.

"Hey come back here, bitch!" Yusuke yelled and shook a fist at where the butler had been. "You didn't explain about this!"

Aniya walked over, "Yusuke, it's okay. This one isn't so hard. We only have to guess which door to go through." He froze. "You mean it? Nice and easy? No catches? We just tell Kuwabara to find the door?" He smiled, but then his smiled disappeared when Aniya said, "Well there is one catch."

Hiei gestured to her, "Which would be…?"

Aniya squirmed, "Only one door gives off spirit energy…" "So we take that one." "…but that one brings certain death. This is the last challenge. One door will lead us to Katomi. One will lead to the lava pit, the others to various challenges. We want to take the most direct path because I've only ever heard of the other challenges."

"Is there something to help us figure out which door to go through?" Kurama wanted to know. Aniya nodded. She pointed to some words inscribed in a wall. "That's a riddle. We have to figure it out. It gives clues about the symbols on the doors. Since Katomi changes which door leads to her, we'll have to figure this out ourselves."

The group walked over to the words and read:

I tip my hat to you for coming so far,

Hopefully, I am not being a bore,

The end is near,

All you have to do is pick the right door.

Four lead to challenges,

One will bring you to me,

Figure out which one I'm behind

And that's where you'll want to be.

Despite the symbol on its face,

This challenge will bring you no peace,

Flying stone will insure

That your life will cease.

This door bears the devil

Because he lives in the flames of hell

Pick this door is speed is your thing

And you may do well.

Snakes are sly creatures

Pick this door out of whim

This door is special

Better hope that you can swim!

Everyone needs something more than air,

Especially when push comes to shove,

Behind this door you will

Fight everything you love.

There is one door with energy

Pick it in less than a breath

But go through and

You will meet instant death.

Five doors lead from this room,

One you must choose,

Pick carefully,

Unless you have nothing to lose.

Have fun!

Yusuke was looking at the clues. "Wait, but this says she's hiding behind one of the doors, but here is has four challenges and one instant death. So we have to do a challenge to get to her?!"

Aniya nodded. "She's got…"

"We know, we know…a twisted mind." She smiled. 

Kurama was rereading the clues. "I think that if we go through the door with devil, we will go back to the challenge we just completed."

Yusuke nodded, "And we definitely know she's not there. Chances she's not behind the door with instant death either."

Aniya agreed, "It's not her style. She likes to actually meet you face to face. Instant death isn't her. If I remember, there are four challenges. (well duh) They all revolved around the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. The fire challenge is the one with the lava pit. Air is the one where things are made from the air, and you have to fight them when they take on certain forms." "Like what?" "Hmm…for Yusuke, the air might look like Kayko. Kuwabara might have to fight an imaginary Yukina. Kurama…your mom maybe. Of course, these look-a-likes are so convincing that you have trouble fighting them. Eventually you lose the heart to live because you cannot fight them."

"I don't think we want to fight that one."

"Very good, Captain Obvious! I think this makes a record: two in one day?"

"Shut up shorty."

"You're not worth it." Aniya turned to the group again. "The earth challenge isn't easy. There are millions of rocks in there that explode on contact. Of course, they are all focused to gravitate on anything bigger than themselves. So of course, if you walk into this room, all the rocks immediately go for you and become bombs the minute they touch you."

"Wait, earlier, when you talked to Katomi you mentioned fire and water. We've been through fire, why did you say water?"

Aniya stared at Kurama as if he had just gotten her a birthday present (or she would have looked that way if she'd ever gotten a present before and knew what getting a present actually meant). "Oh, I totally forgot! Katomi always hides behind the water door because the water challenge is the only one where you have to find another door that leads to her. All you have to do is kill the giant water snake first." She smiled. "Easy."

Hiei was bored at this point, "So, which door is the water door?"

Kurama walked around. "The one with the devil is the lava pit, because that's fire and the poem says the devil lives in the flames of fire. This one is emitting spirit energy, so that's the only one that could be instant death. There are only three doors left. One with a weird circle sign on it…?"

Aniya smiled, "That's the peace sign from the sixty's. That would be the rock challenge, if you look at the poem."

Kurama continued. "This one has a coffee cup?"

She giggled. "The poem says  'Everyone needs something more than air,/ Especially when push comes to shove,' that would be the air challenge. Have you ever heard of people who have an addiction to coffee? They need it to survive, quote unquote. Katomi is creative sometimes."

Kurama turned to the last door. "This one has a snake on it. I take it that this is the water challenge, reason being that the water challenge is to fight a giant water snake?"

Aniya nodded. "Let's go." Kuwabara barged into the door—and nearly fell into the huge pool. Yusuke came up behind him. "I take it, we have to swim down to the door?" She nodded, "You can only fight the snake under the water." She looked at the group. "I can put the snake to sleep with one of the controlling spells, but it'll wipe out all my energy."

Kurama shook his head. "Allow me to kill the snake." The group stared at him as he made his way to the edge of the pool and dived in. He treaded water while he spoke to them. "It goes needless to say, come quickly because I do not how long the door will stay open with the water pressure." Everyone nodded. 

Yusuke pushed Kuwabara in and then jumped in himself. Hiei dove in. Aniya smiled and back into a gymnastics position. Then, flipping twice, she back flipped into the pool, neatly closing the door behind her with a spell. She surfaced, along with the other group members, except for Kurama. Suddenly, a big green thing swept by her, followed quickly by Kurama. She dove under.

'This is harder than I thought,' Kurama was thinking. 'Oh well, I'll just get out rose whip.' Pulling out the whip, he tried to flick it, but it was having problems moving underwater. He dodged the snake's attacks. Then he saw Aniya swimming down toward him. She grabbed his hand and gestured for him to use the whip again. With a bit of extra energy from her, he was able to gather enough force to whip the snake. It's head fell away from its body. That's when the whirlpool started. Aniya pulled Kurama back up to the surface.

"Everyone, follow me! Don't get caught in the whirl pool." Aniya dove again and swam down to the bottom of the large pool, avoiding the tunnel that had just opened, that was causing a whirlpool. She pulled on the door in the wall at the bottom and pushed the baka and the detective inside. Kurama and Hiei swam in and she pulled the door shut, pushing the little red button on the outside. 

The water drained out of the little hallway that they were sitting in. Aniya counted silently to five. "Five…four…three…two…one…" "Congrats on making it through the challenges. I'm afraid the Aniya isn't quite done. Aniya, you know where to go. If you want the stone, I hope you didn't lose your breath swimming." Katomi's voice shrunk so that only Aniya could hear her. "Anything you can do, I can do better."

The group looked for the mirror and finding none, they looked at Aniya. 

"What's that mean?"

"It means, baka, that she's ready for the final showdown."

A/N: How was it? Let me know how I'm doing. Or I'll send the evil giraffe on you. J/k, but please review.


	6. The Final Showdown

Disclaimer + A/N: I don't own anyone Yu Yu Hakusho or the words and music for "It's my Life". This chapter has a weird bit, where there's a challenge by song. The format is weird, but if you can imagine the fight moves happening at the same time as the lyrics after them, then it should be an easier read. I know it's shorter, but it took me much longer to write. Enjoy.

Updated A/N 2012: When I revisited and I read the updated terms of service, I realized some of my chapters were not in compliance with the rules. This chapter contained the lyrics for _It's My Life_ by Bon Jovi, which are not in public domain. Those lyrics have been removed, but the rest of the story has been preserved.

Dragons in Time

Part 6: Final Showdown

Aniya squared her shoulders and began to walk down the dark hallway, followed by Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke, all wondering what the final showdown would be. They emerged into a large chamber, that seemed to echo their footsteps.

"Come out Katomi." The lights flicked on and the group blinked in the bright lighting. They were in the middle of a huge arena, but unlike the sand covered pits that Aniya was used to fighting in, this one was covered in red carpeting. Katomi revealed herself fully for the first time.

Her dark brown hair swirled theatrically around her, even though there was no wind. "My dear Aniya. So good to see you again." She looked at the group, "What friends you have! Where _do_ you find them? In the Arena perhaps?"

Aniya sweat dropped. 'This woman is really full of herself isn't she? What does she hope to accomplish with these stupid words.' "Katomi, quit with the small talk crap, we all know that you stole my stone and I'm going to get it back. Conditions?"

"Conditions are that you can have the stone, if you can defeat me."

Aniya was weary. "Defeat you in what?"

"Battle." Katomi smiled, but it turned to a frown when she saw Aniya laughing. "What is so funny? I don't find it funny! I challenge you and you don't take it seriously. You wouldn't laugh if one of them challenged you!"

"No, but that's because they could probably kick my ass right now."

"And I couldn't?"

"That's right."

Katomi pouted like a small child. "Alright, how about this, I challenge you to an épreuve par chansons!" She smiled, since she knew that she would win. "Do you accept? I will give you fifteen minutes to prepare." She disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The group crowded around Aniya. "What's an 'ay-prever par shanson'?" Aniya sighed. "Épreuve par chansons? It's French and it basically translates to 'trial by song.' If Katomi suggested this, then she must have found a way to use the stone's energy because she would never have challenged me to this. She must think her song power is stronger than my dance."

Kuwabara was confused once again, "So, what exactly is a trial by song?"

Aniya sighed again. "Two people, both magic users have a combat, without using spirit energy. You can use regular weapons and fighting moves and magic. I've never been challenged to fight by song. I've fought by drama before. It's fighting, but Sailor Moon style. You have to pose and shout out what attacks your using in order for them to work. Dance fighting is like regular fighting, but you have to use moves that go along with a song.

"Song trials consist of two fighters using two songs. The person who can put out more energy into a song, or fight best along with their song wins because their magic will dominate the other persons. So I need to find a song that I think that will overpower Katomi's. Any suggestions?"

All four boys looked at each other. None of them really listened to music. Aniya smiled, "It's okay if you don't. I understand that you wouldn't normally have a lot of time for music anyway." She set to thinking. "I need a song that I think can overpower her…what song will she choose?" She muttered to herself, and unwrapped her armband. 'I'll need all the help I can get if she's using the stone.'

Katomi returned. "Are you ready Aniya?"

Aniya nodded. "Rules, bitch?"

"Anything goes. I start my song goes, and then you may join in whenever you feel like it." She grinned. "Of course, the person's who song ends or the last person standing wins the stone. Happy?" Aniya crossed her arms, but she gave a small nod. "You might want to tell your friends there to move because they don't want to be affected by the songs, do they?"

Aniya turned and looked at the group, "You guys can move if you feel that you would be unsafe. I also need to ask that you don't interfere, no matter what happens. Wait until the songs are over before you try to take the stone if I fail." 'Like that'll happen.' Aniya gave them a signal that told them to go find seats in the stadium. Then Aniya turned around and faced Katomi. "You may begin, but what song are you doing?"

Katomi smiled, "Your favorite."

Aniya gasped, 'How am I supposed to win if she uses it? Not only that, but that means that she'll take all the moves I would normally make. Damn…'

Katomi raised her arms to begin powering for her first attack and the music began…

Katomi released her first attack, which was a huge blast of light, meant to wipe out everything in sight…

Aniya managed to dodge it, but she thought, 'Damn, Katomi's gotten stronger! It must be that stupid stone!' She didn't have much time to think about it because Katomi released another flash of light…

As the blasts were slow and powerful, it was easy for Aniya to dodge, but she couldn't ignore how much power Katomi was harnessing. 'She must be using a song to manipulate the stone or something.' She looked back at Katomi…  
Katomi began to focus between her two hands and an orb of light began to grow…

Katomi held up the orb of glowing electricity…

Releasing the orb, Katomi smiled, there could be no way that Aniya could dodge this one…

Aniya watched as the orb moved toward her, 'I can dodge it….I can dodge it…just wait…' She didn't want to move in case it was a tracking attack or something…

The group looked at each other, "Why isn't she dodging it?"

Katomi prepared another attack as Aniya flips out of the way in time…

Aniya rolled out of a missed flip and sees the next one coming…

She managed to carwheel out of the way in time, as the blast hit the wall behind her, destroying the doorway…

Aniya got tired because she couldn't formulate an attack against Katomi because of the rules of magic, she crouched…

Katomi powered up her hands for a fast electrical attack…

Trying to think, Aniya closed her eyes, 'How can I fight someone who's fighting with their forte and a stone with magical powers? This is impossible!'

She saw that Katomi was nearly finished powering up, so she did the only that she could think of—set up a shield and hoped it would hold…

Then the electrical energy hit the shield full blast, pushing Aniya back as she tried to force the shield to stay up…

Her shield fell as there was a pause in the attacks…

Well, for about two seconds at least. She saw more electricity coming her way and she flips like an Olympic gymnast, just to get out of the way.

Katomi begins to laugh and she thinks, 'Yes, my beauty, today we will finish this business that we started six years ago.' Looking at the stone, she laughs again and begins to power up for the ultimate attack that she could think of…

Aniya watched as Katomi began to power up. Then she caught sight of the Astoria stone around Katomi's neck. Aniya's blood began to boil and she clenched her teeth. 'Okay, screw the rules, I'm not taking this shit anymore! If she can play dirty, so can I!'

Standing up, she begins to emit a glow of her own…

She rose in the air and blasted her way to Katomi…

Katomi's eyes widened and she stopped laughing as she saw Aniya flying toward her. Powering up another electrical fast attack she thought, 'No! The music is on my side! She can't win, not on my own turf!' She fired the attacks…

Aniya saw them coming and blocked them by punching them aside…_._

She soared closer to Katomi, who attempted to put up a shield…

Aniya took out her sword and hit the shield, breaking it. Then she prepared herself

The dracon kicked Katomi in the head with a karate kick and then kicked her in the chest, causing the stone to fly up into the air…

Katomi looked at the stone flipping in the air and realized that she cannot fight back. Stripped of her powers, she tried to scramble back, away from Aniya…

Aniya advanced, forming a fist with her power hand, preparing to blast the hell out of Katomi…

Lifting her hand, she releases her attack, which forces her to somersault out of the blast…

Aniya landed in a crouch and raised a hand…

The stone flew through air…

…and landed in her outstretched hand.

The blast faded away and the dust settled, revealing an exhausted Aniya, clenching the stone in her fist. Standing, she walked over to the charred remains of Katomi. "You got what you deserved. You should have listened to the books; they really meant it when they said that the stone would kill you."

Turning, she saw Yusuke and Kuwabara running out into the arena. "Wow! That was so cool! How did you do that?" "Can you teach me to do that?"

She smiled and tried to bear them out, "I trained, and no baka, I will not teach you." Turning to Kurama who had just arrived, she smiled. "That went well didn't it?" Suddenly her smile faded and her eyes fluttered. "Damn…I've overexerted my energy…again…I really…should…start to train…with those…more often…" She wavered on her feet and Kurama supported her on his arm. "You guys…get out of the…castle…it will collapse under…Katomi's stupid concealment…spell…" Just as those words left her mouth, the castle began to shake. "You cannot run…there isn't time…"

"What do we do then?" Yusuke asked.

"Kurama, you and Hiei can…teleport…" Turning to the humans she added, "I can…give you temporary teleporting powers…because I have…the stone…now…stand still baka…" She muttered under her breath and suddenly Yusuke and Kuwabara disappeared in flashes of light. Aniya raised a hand and sent them away.

"Where did you send them?" Kurama asked.

Aniya answered. "Back to Koenma's place. You two…go…I'll fly back…"

Kurama shook his head. "You are in no condition to fly back to spirit world." He picked her up in his arms and teleported out.

Hiei, now alone in the collapsing castle thought to himself, 'Why is it when we have a mission either Kurama or I have to carry some weakling back?'

He heard a faint memory of a voice say, "I heard that."

Looking around he decided that it must have been some trick of a ghost or something. He teleported out.

"Hn."

A/N: Let me know how I'm doing. I have also decided not to write a sequel to Dragons in Time, but I am writing a different story. I'll post the first chapter soon.


	7. What the Hell!

Disclaimer + A/N: Disclaimer + A/N: Anything from YYH is not mine, and I don't pretend to claim it. However, the idea of the Arena, Katomi, Sukeisa, Gantoi, Four-Eyed Joe, Firenzy, Aniya, Sani and the Demon ball are all mine. This chapter picks up where the last one left off, it's several months later. (You didn't think the story was over, did you?) Please note that in the story, there is a flashback (because what would a story be without a good old flashback) and the italics won't work there for some reason, so I'm marking the flashback with little squiggle lines that look like this: ~*~*~ You'll know it when you see it. 

Dragons inTime

Part 7: What the hell??!**__**

Aniya woke up. 'Shit, I'm still dreaming about that stupid mission.' She took a look around her hide out and sighed, 'Ah, I am so glad everything is back to normal,' "Good morning Sani, how did you sleep?" The little dragon chirped in reply and Aniya smiled. Dressing in her black ninja suit, she took an inventory of her arm bands and shin guards. Her armor had been destroyed in the process of fighting Katomi, and she had never gotten the replacements. 'I meant to get rid of the armor anyway. It's not like it was essential for me to have at any rate.' She grabbed her Katana and made her way to the Arena. 

It was a long walk to the nearest entrance to the Arena, but Aniya thought that this was a way of making sure that she wasn't killed, by either over-enthusiastic fans or by angry opponents. No one would think that the Black Dragon, who never talked, would live that far into a city. Walking down a dark alleyway on the edge of town, she jumped nimbly over the metal fence and concentrated on her finger.

Her finger began to glow and she traced a pattern on the wall, that looked like three gashes made from a claw. It was her sign in the Arena. The pattern on the wall spread until it became an out line of a door, which Aniya walked through. Once inside, the noise level increased to a point that was almost unbearable. Aniya made her way to the waiting area, where she saw hundreds of demons who wanted to have a fight.

Aniya smiled beneath her mask. She remembered the days when she was just one of them, waiting for a chance to fight. Walking past them, she made her way down a hallway, to the locker room. Since she was a regular fighter, she didn't have to wait in line for hours for a fight. Aniya never believed in actually using the locker room, but she went there just to see who was there for the day. 

She nodded to Four-Eyed Joe, an overweight demon with amusing attacks who grunted back after burping from the beer he had just drunk. 'Four-Eyed Joe was my first fight. I'm sure he doesn't remember.' Four-Eyed Joe rarely remembered anything except for the rules of the Arena, how to attack and probably how to chug two-hundred beers without getting unconscious. 

There were only two other people in the room: Firenzy and Gantoi. They were two friends who had fought in the Arena since they were infants. Firenzy was known for his quick attacks, striking so fast that the opponent had no chance to defend himself. That's how he got to be in the top four fighters. The only thing was, he might have been fast, but his brain wasn't quite up to speed, but that didn't really matter in the Arena. As long as he could fight well, life was good to him. Gantoi on the other hand was so slow that it took forever for an injury to affect him. His attacks were slow (like him), but powerful. No one could hurt him enough in time to evade his powerful attacks. Unlike Firenzy, Gantoi's intelligence made up for his lack of speed. 

Aniya looked around, there they were, the top four fighters. She sighed, 'If only they could find some other way to arrange the matches.' She didn't have to fight all day, she could refuse to fight if she wanted, but she had never done that before. True, there were other fighters that were part of the organization, who got paired up with newcomers, but the top four were the ones that were the most requested. 

Firenzy and Gantoi waved. "Another day at the Arena, huh Dragon?" Aniya nodded silently. "When are you going to take off your mask?" "Yeah? Why don't you take of the mask?" Aniya looked at Sani. 'Tell them the joke I had with you the other night.' 

Sani flew over and hopped on Firenzy's arm. "The Black Dragon does not like to reveal his latest attack." The two questioned the little dragon and looked at Aniya. "What kind of an attack is that?" Sani looked very serious when she replied "Death by hideous face." The two laughed and Sani hopped back to Aniya's arm.

"You're good," said Firenzy, slapping his thigh, overdoing it by a lot. He paused when he heard the ten minute warning. "Well, Gantoi, you'd better get started or otherwise, you'll miss your first match." Gantoi smiled, revealing a toothy-grin. "You know me, I'm always rearing and ready to go. But I don't know about me having the first match."

Firenzy looked at him, "Come on. You know that they wouldn't put Joe or Dragon out first. You're better for warming up. You also can get rid of those kids who think they can really take on the Black Dragon. But there's no way that Dragon would take them on, isn't that right Dragon?"

Aniya nodded and then pointed for the door and walked out, indicating that they should probably head out to the Arena waiting area, where they would meet up with the other ninety-six demons who were on the opponents list. They all nodded their heads respectively when Aniya and the other three passed. They waited right outside the door, until they could hear the announcer say, "Ladies and gents…the opponents!" The lesser fighters walked out and formed rows by the walls, leaving a path for the last four. "And now….Gantoi!" Applause erupted from the stadium seats as Gantoi made his slow way to the center of the Arena. 

"Firenzy!" Cheers came from the crowd as Firenzy blasted his way in by flipping. Aniya shook her head, 'He was always for theatrics, he's such a crowd-lover'. Firenzy waved and bowed to where Gantoi sat, waiting. "Give it up for the champion-fighter Four-Eyed Joe!" Screams blared their ways into the hallway where Aniya stood waiting. Joe walked out and belched loudly. 'He's such a crowd-pleaser, both of them.' 

Once the crowd had quieted down slightly the announced called out, "Recently returned from the mysterious disappearance, back in the flesh and ready to fight, the fighter you've all been waiting for…the Black Dragon!!!' Hearing the noise that made Joe's calls look like whispers, Aniya walked out invisibly, under her spell. She made it to the center of the room, before making a big cloud of black smoke and dropping the invisibility spell. The calls rang in her sensitive ears as she turned slowly to acknowledge the entire crowd. 'I guess I play for the crowd too,' she thought with a smile. Then all the fighters went back into the doors that led to the waiting area for the opponents, the final four, as they were called, backed out into the hallway.

"Wow, there's a big crowd today. It must be because you're back Dragon." Aniya nodded to Joe as they made their way to their chairs. 

"Wonder who you'll get to fight first, huh Black?" Firenzy could be annoying at times, but he was still a damn good fighter. 

"The first fight of today: the Black Dragon verses the Black Stranger!" Aniya jolted in her chair. 'They started with me? What the hell?!'

"Hey, did you hear that Dragon? You're first today!" Firenzy

*****

"Wow, this place is huge. It's like a giant arena!"

"Your skills of observation are simply astounding, idiot."

"Hey shorty, was I talking to you?"

"Apparently so."

Kurama and Yusuke looked at each other and groaned. This was going to be a _long_ day. Yusuke slumped back into his chair and looked around, wondering for the millionth time, why he had to spend another weekend doing the spirit detective stuff. 'Stupid Koenma and his stupid meeting..'

~*~"I'd like to congratulate you ona good job, as usual. I see the stone has been recovered and returned to its rightful place." Everyone started at the box in Aniya's lap. She moved her hands to protectively cover the box, which contained the Astoria stone. Nodding at Aniya, Koenma continued. "As you have all recovered from the mission, and you did such a good job, I have decided to give you a break for a while."

Yusuke and Kuwabara cheered, and gave each other high fives to celebrate the victory. Kurama chuckled at the two's antics while Hiei snorted and turned away from, what he thought, was a disgraceful display. Aniya chose to announce, "With that said, Koenma sir, I should be leaving."

Koenma looked at her, "Why? Don't you like working with these guys?"

Aniya replied, "The arrangement that we made was that I would co-operate with whomever you sent on the recovery mission. Then, once the stone was restored to me, I could do as I pleased. As we have completed the mission, I am returning to the Arena, to my regular life." She bowed and walked out.

Kurama and Hiei watched the Black Dragon leave, while Yusuke and Kuwabara were too busy celebrating to notice that Aniya was gone.~*~

Yusuke looked around at the stadium that was filling up. 'Remind me again why we are here, in this god-forsaken Arena…oh, that's right…Koenma told us too.' He thought bitterly as he watched demons and humans alike enter the stadium to sit down for the battles.  He turned to Kurama, "I still don't get why Koenma sent us on this stupid mission. Botan could have worked just as well. It's her kind of gig anyway."

Kurama looked at him, "but Aniya does not know Botan well, and as a fighter, she would be cautious to accept or trust anything that came from someone she did not know. So, Koenma chose you to deliver the invitation because you are the spirit detective." Looking out at the maintenance workers who were doing last minute checks on the Arena floor he said, "I believe Kuwabara came along for the novelty of attending a demon match. Hiei came to insure that we were not bothered and I was here to…" he trailed off as the fighters entered the Arena. There were ninety-six lesser demons, of all shapes, sizes, colors and backgrounds. Each was slightly unique.

"Kurama, you were saying…?"

"I was here to make sure that Hiei did not get out of control."

They nearly had to block their ears as the announcer yelled, "Gantoi!!"

Kuwabara started to cheer like the idiot that he was. "Gantoi! Gantoi! Gantoi!" He was chanting and jumping up and down like an absolute idiot. Yusuke tried to get him to sit down in his seat, like everyone else. 

"FIRENZY!….FOUR-EYED JOE!" Yusuke finally got Kuwabara to settle down when the announcement "THE BLACK DRAGON!!" was made. He let him go as everyone else in the Arena was jumping up and down and shouting just like him. Kuwabara nearly shouted out, "Yeah, Ay—"

Kurama shushed him. "Remember, no one knows that she's a girl. I doubt it that she would forgive you in the event that you blew her cover."

Kuwabara shut his mouth and slumped in his seat. Yusuke looked around and asked Kurama, "Hey, where is Hiei anyway?" Kurama looked at the seat to his left. It was empty. Yusuke looked wildly around to see where Hiei could have gone off to. Then they heard the next announcement: "The first fight of today: the Black Dragon verses the Black Stranger!" 

Kurama looked at Yusuke. "You don't think he would sign up to fight?" Yusuke asked. Kurama nodded his head, "Apparently he has. I recall that he spent a couple of months fighting in the Arena, and he might be looking for revenge."

"Revenge? Revenge for what?!"

"He was beaten by her last time they fought, remember?"

Yusuke groaned, "What if he kills her? Koenma will kill me…not to mention you because you were supposed to make sure he didn't try anything!"

Kurama watched Yusuke worry about his welfare. "Do you have no faith in the Black Dragon's skills? She beat him before, why can't she do it again." 'Never mind the fact that Hiei will be absolutely livid if she does beat him a second time…'

"No…but…" Kurama interrupted. "Ask anyone." Turning to a demon behind him, he asked, "Excuse me, who do you think will win the match? The dragon or the stranger?"

The surfer demon looked at him weirdly, "Dude? Like where have you been? That black stranger's going down. There's no way in hell that the dude could win. Haven't you heard? The Black Dragon, can't be, like, killed." Thanking him, Kurama turned around, back to Yusuke. "As you can see, the Black Dragon can take care of himself."

The entire stadium suddenly became black, as all the lights were turned off. Then, two spotlights appeared, one at either end of the Arena, one for each of the opponents.

*****

Aniya looked out from the shadows, trying to use her psychic ability to figure out who her opponent was. She listened for her cues from the announcer. "Defending his title, the Black Dragon!" Aniya stepped out of the shadows and froze. She waited for the other opponent to reveal himself.

*****

"Attacker: The Black Stranger!"

Hiei stepped out of the darkness.

"What the hell??! Why is shorty down there?!"

Aniya was angry. 'What the hell??! What does he think he's doing?'

The announcer continued, "Remember, there are only three rules. One: if you are down, meaning you are anything lower than a crouch or you are immobile, the countdown will begin and you have ten seconds to continue the fight. Two: If the ten seconds is over, and you are down, you have lost the match. Three: Anything goes. Ready? Let the match begin!"

The stadium lights came back on fully. Hiei whipped off his cloak, and unwrapped his bandana. Aniya was confused, 'Okay, I thought we had settled this, but obviously he's back for a  pounding.' Then she noticed he hadn't taken off his arm bandages. 'What the hell??! Isn't he going to use the dragon wave thing?' She looked at him as people from the crowd began to talk. They hadn't seen anyone fight with a Jagan eye before. Some people were beginning to doubt the fact that the Black Dragon could win. Aniya walked forward, preparing an electrical attack, similar to the one that Katomi had used on her. Blurring forward, she released the attack. Hiei dodged the attack. Aniya heard a voice in her head, 'Is that the best you can do?'

'Hiei! Why the hell are you here?' She flipped out of the way as Hiei attempted to kick her in the head, then she heard his answer.

'To prove that without your mask you're nothing and you can't fight.'

Aniya gritted her teeth. 'I thought we settled this already. You guys doubted my fighting skills, and I proved them to be better than yours, but if you insist on being beaten again, then bring it on!'

Hiei blurred forward and released hundreds of punches on Aniya, or would have if she hadn't dodged and blocked every blow. Both fighters landed in crouches facing away from each other and turned.

'Ok, so you've gotten a bit faster,' thought Aniya, 'but that doesn't mean I'm weak!'

'No,, you aren't weak, it's just I'm stronger than you.'

'Arrogant bastard!'

'Hn.'

Aniya was getting angry. 'Ok, no more fooling around.; She tore off her arm band that sealed her dracon blood. Immediately, a light began to glow around her, blinding the eyes of all the spectators. 'I'm a crowd-pleaser, what can I say?' She could feel the power coursing through her body. 'It's a pity that I have to transform fully to have complete access of my powers. And it's a pity that I have to stay in these clothes.'

Yusuke and Kurama watched the light from their seats in the stands and then they turned their attention to Hiei, who was staring at Aniya. 

"Man, this seems like a reply of their last fight." 

Kurama shook his head, "This time, Hiei's not even making an attempt to win. His heart isn't in it."

"Is his heart ever in anything?"

"The fight he lost last time." They turned to watch again. "But I believe he's trying to get Aniya to do something rash so he can win the fight without much damage to himself."

Yusuke looked in the Arena where Hiei and Aniya had brought out their katanas and were powering the swords with their spirit energy.

The swords came together with a clang, and another as both fighters thrust and parried repeatedly. Aniya blocked a slash as Hiei brought his sword down. The swords were locked together, so Hiei put some more of his spirit energy into the sword, to attempt to overpower Aniya's. Aniya reacted to this by increasing her spirit energy and shoving Hiei's sword off. They swung the swords around, but this time, instead of locking down, the swords were blown away by the power. The two fighters had no weapons, and took a two second breather before going at it with their fists.

"I hope you have more energy than that, Dragon." Hiei spat at her before he began to transform. He increased in size (by just a little) and turned green. Eyes popped up, all over his body and Aniya sword silently. 'Damn him. His power is increased with his stupid little eyes and I can't transform without revealing who I am. Either way my reputation goes to bits: Black Dragon is a girl or Black Dragon lost. Screw this, I'd take the girl gossip any day.'

She removed her other armband and took off her ninja uniform top. Underneath was a skin tight tank top. Taking a deep breath and thinking, 'Well, here it goes,' she removed her mask.

The audience exploded with yells of shock, surprise and astonishment. They basically were all saying, 'to think that the best fighter the Arena's ever had was a girl!' Aniya smiled as she shook out her ponytail. 'Now I can transform! They've never seen my true form, have they?' Her skin became even more white than it already was. Her silver hair acquired pearly white highlights. White and silver wings erupted from her shoulder blades. Making fists, she held up her hands and claws shot out of them.

Hiei stared at her. 'Hn. I thought she said she couldn't transform.'

'I can't, when I'm in those clothes. They hide the majority of my power so that powerful demons can't track me down easily. This is what I look like when all my power is released. I miss my claws and wings when I'm stuff in my half form. They make me feel like Wolverine or something.'

'I don't care about this Wolverine. I want to fight.'

Aniya nodded, "So fight." She jumped into the sky and slashed the air, sending cutting attacks to Hiei. He ran out of the way and telepathically called his sword. Landing on the ground, Aniya watched as Hiei ran around her, finding a weak spot to attack. With the magnification of his Jagan eye, Aniya was having a harder time seeing him. Trying to keep an eye on the whirling blur, she dodged several attacks before catching one with her claws. Spinning, she flipped away. The opponents ran toward each other, spinning at the last moment to add some extra force.

They both froze. Hiei's sword was a hair's breath away from Aniya's neck, but his own neck was mere millimeters away from one set of Aniya's sharp claws. They glared at each other as the announcer was at a loss as what to say. The announcer had been the longest running announcer in Arena history. All the others had gotten killed in mysterious instances. Fighters who didn't like what an announcer said didn't really have to put up with the announcer for long. This announcer, who's name was Bob wanted to keep his job, record and life. He was trying to make sure that no one who approach him in a dark alleyway sometime saying, "I didn't like what you said about me in the Arena today…"

"It seems….that…we have…a…um…*gulp*…tie…between the Black Stranger and…the Black Dragon….and according…to the rules, if one…of them does not move in ten seconds,…the fight is over and the match is a draw." He picked up more confidence as he found a legal way to make sure that neither of the two fighters who feel insulted about losing. 

Aniya and Hiei stared at each other. Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara looked at each other and hurridly left their seats. "We can't let him kill her!" Yusuke said as the trio ran through the maze of hallways to the Arena floor. Kurama replied, "I'm more concerned about her killing him." 

Kuwabara looked at both of them, "Why don't we let them kill each other and make the world a better place?" He stopped as Kurama and Yusuke looked at him like he was mad. "What? What did I say?"

Both of the fighters were still frozen. Bob had already begun the count down. "Four…three…two…one…zero!" A big horn blew and Bob cheerfully called out, "Okay! Match over! No victor, it's a draw! *****whew*" 

Hiei spoke, "Are you afraid to move?"

She shot back, "No more than you."

"You realize that I could slit your throat and your life would be over twenty seconds later."

"Actually, it would be a bit longer than that. It takes a human twenty-three seconds to die from blood loss, but that's if you were to hit the aorta. As a demon, if you were to hit my aorta, if would take me closer on a minute to die because my life preservation system is very advanced. If you hit me anywhere but the aorta, it would take me three minutes, but that would be if you damaged me enough. In that amount of time, I could slash your Jagan eye, slash you in some other places, then slit your throat, so I could watch you suffer in pain before you died."

Bob was trying to end the quarrel. "Um…hello? People in the Arena? Yes…um the fight is over! If you want to continue the fight, you have to wait until you are off the premises. Is this thing on? Is the mic working? Anyway, next fight is Four-Eyed Joe and Arachnid Boy"

Aniya whipped his sword away and flipped backwards, lest he tried anything. The trio finally managed to arrive in the Arena. Kuwabara ran in between them and held up his hands. "Don't kill each other! I don't want Koenma, Kurama and Yusuke mad at me!"

Aniya sweatdropped, "And why would they be mad at you, baka?"

"Wel…Urameshi said they would be."

"Baka."

"Idiot, you believed him?"

"Yeah…"

"Stupid, like we were going to kill each other anyway." Aniya found her arm bands and put them on. Slowly, her hair became silver again, her flesh slightly less white. Her wings disappeared in a cascade of silver light. She held up her arms and retracted her claws. Finding her coat and sword, she grabbed them and headed to the locker rooms. Aniya noticed that the others weren't coming. "Are you guys coming or what?"

Yusuke and Kurama jogged up to her, while Hiei finished transforming back into his regular form and then blurred after them, leaving a Kuwabaka saying, "Hey, wait for me!"

Aniya pushed back the doors. "Joe, you're up against some kid called Arachnid boy." 

Joe shuffled over, "Who the hell are you?"

Aniya smiled, "My name's Aniya. You can call me the Black Dragon." Joe's four eyes fixed on her. 

"Oh. So you're a girl." Seeing her nod he smiled, "Nice to know that there's a girl around here who can kick some ass." Aniya smiled back and thanked him.

"Jeepers! He talks!" Firenzy had finally noticed Aniya.

"I think you mean 'she'," Gantoi had tagged along. "Who are they?"

Aniya looked at the four fighters behind her, "Oh. Them? They're just…friends."

Gantoi winked at her, "Catch you later Dragon. Don't let them get you into trouble."

Aniya looked confused, "What the hell??!"

Gantoi smiled, "You don't have to understand. Just go and have some fun. There's more to life than the Arena."

"Okaaaay. Gantoi, I think you'd better have that head of yours checked out. I think you've been around Firenzy for too long. Go get ready. You're up after Joe."

Turning to the group, she asked, "Shall we talk outside?" She showed them the door.

Firenzy watched as she left. "What didja mean, Gantoi, about Dragon leaving and there's more to life than the Arena. If there's more to life than the Arena, how come we're doing this instead of whatever there is in life that's more than the Arena?" 

Gantoi smiled, "There is more than life than the Arena. I think it is time that Aniya learned about being someone other than a fighter. Women aren't quire the same. They can live their whole lives without a friend, but that's no way for someone to live their life, especially someone with so much promise, like Aniya."

*****

Aniya flipped over the fence and waited for the group to climb over. "So, Yusuke, what brings you to this part of town? I thought I told Koenma that I wasn't taking any of his dumb-ass missions."

Kurama said, "Koenma isn't asking you to go on a mission."

She looked at the four of them, "Then what is it then?"

Yusuke handed her an envelope, with gold on then edges. "If this is a mission, I swear I'll someone." She blurred away. Hiei and Kurama teleported back to spirit world as Kuwabara and Yusuke walked home.

"Urameshi? Why did you tell me that everyone'd be mad at me if I didn't stop the fight?"

"Because I wanted to see you make a fool of yourself."

"What the hell??! I'm going to beat the shit out of you!!"

"C'mon Kuwabara. It was only a joke. Hey. Hey!!"

*****

Flopping down on the formally-known-as-a-sofa, Aniya looked at the envelope in her hands. 'What the hell could this be?' Opening it, she pulled out a silver and red piece of card.

Prince Koenma, Ruler of the Spirit World

Cordially Requests Your Attendance at:

The 137th Demon Ball

Held at the palace on the 24th of May

Formal dress required.

R.S.V.P as soon as possible, Prince Koenma

Aniya gaped. 'You have got to be kidding me. Those guys tracked me down to give me an invite to a party?! What the hell?!' "Sani?"

The little dragon chirped as she landed on Aniya's shoulder. 

"Tell Koenma I'm not going to this demon ball thing."

'Why not?"

"Because…I hate the people…wearing fancy clothes…the people…let's see…the food…the people…the dances….the people…the paying of respects to other people….did I mention that I don't like people?"

'Oh, so you're scared.'

"I'm not scared. I just don't like people!"

'Okay. I'll tell Koenma that you can't come because you have a social disease.'

"I do not have a social disease!"

'Denial is the first step.'

"First step of what?"

'Toward the challenge.'

"What challenge? Sani what are you talking about?"

'You need to challenge your fears of going into society.'

"Sani, you sound like a fucking guidance counselor. Give me a break. I am not going, and that is final. You can tell Koenma to shove it up his ass."

Sani took off, not wanting to push her luck.

*****

"She said no? Does she realize how important this is?"

Sani looked at Koenma, 'I'm sorry Koenma sir. I even tried to trick her into saying yes, but I failed miserably.'

Koenma slumped into his big chair. "But we need her to be there!"

Sani jerked her head to the side, 'What do mean you need her to be there?'

"Protection purposes."

Botan appeared, "Koenma, Yusuke and everyone will be there. Don't you think that they could handle the security?"

He sighed, "Not if the Sukeisa is the one breaking in!"

She sighed, "So you need her here just in case something just happens to happen." He nodded. "I'll see what I can do." She disappeared.

Aniya was settling down, waiting for Sani to come back when all of a sudden, Botan appeared. "Hello Aniya!"

"What the hell??!"

A/N: I know the title wasn't too creative, but I thought…why not? Stay tuned for more in Part 8: What a Girl Doesn't Want.


	8. What a Girl Doesn't Want

A/N + Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from Yu Yu Hakusho, but give me credit for everyone else. There isn't a lot of action in this one, but it gets everything ready for the next chapter. Spare me from those authors who write please and review a million times at the beginning and end of their chapters (because it is simply ridiculous). Read and if you want, review. Most importantly, enjoy. 

Dragons in Time

Part 8: What a Girl Doesn't Want

"Botan, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to convince you to come to the demon ball!"

"Save your energy and your time. I'm not going."

Botan raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why not?"

Aniya frowned, "I just don't like people because my experiences with them in the past haven't been pleasant."

"Why don't you give people another try?"

"Well, let's see…one, they tried to chop off my wings last time I was with more than six people…two, now that everyone knows what I really look like, it will be harder for me to conceal myself from people who want to pick fights with me outside the Arena….three, I don't like people." 

Botan winced, "They really tried to cut your wings off?"

"And tried to remove my claws. Without anesthetics. So, as you can see, I don't have much experience in a social setting on the account of not being able to stand being around people for more than a few minutes."

"That's horrible," Botan was indignant, "People shouldn't be allowed to treat each other that way. Wait—how could they cut off your wings if you're a demon. They shouldn't have been able to see you."

Aniya smiled, "As if happens I'm not exactly a demon, am I? Whether I'm in my full form or not, people can see me. It's sort of like zombies. They can see them, but they possess demonic properties. It sucks. Also, it didn't help that I was given to the 'freak squad' which have people who have control over spirit energy. This group of medical people take care of demons, but apparently, they wanted to get rid of my wings because they didn't think I was a youkai, human or hanyu. They were scared, so they decided to try and take away my wings and claws so I could be a semi-regular human."

"Imagine, never being able to go to the movies, or shopping, seeing friends or going traveling…."Botan trailed off as she imagined Aniya in a dark cell with nothing to do but throw a tennis ball against the wall.

Aniya held up her hands. "Whoa, I never said I was isolated. I just said that I was treated unfairly. I've probably been to more places than you. Shopping sounds like a nightmare from what I've heard. Movies are over-rated. What's the point of going to see an action movie when I can watch the same moves being performed in the Arena. Friends? They're crutches…" 'But they aren't, are they? They can really help you out sometimes…'

Botan watched as Aniya stopped speaking. 'It's hard for her isn't it? To actually meet people and trust them after what she's been through.' "Are you sure you don't want to come to the ball? Koenma only holds it every hundred years."

"Who'll be there?"

Botan began to name people, "The count and countess Davanci, they're from Italy; Lady Calisandra, she's very high up in the social positions, so I've heard. A cousin of Koenma or something…let's see…then there's Lord Doukai. He's just acquired an inheritance, so he's like bachelor of the year or something…" She stopped because of the look of absolute horror that was showing on Aniya's face. "Okay, okay. I'll stop. Well, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Yukina, Koenma, me, George…"

"Yukina? Yukina will be there?"

"Yes. She's a very important ice maiden."

"So she'll be there too?"

"Yes. Besides, you have to go anyway, because if you snub Koenma's invitation, King Enma will become very angry, and we all know what happens when he gets angry."

"Well I don't, so could you tell me please?"

Flustered, Botan tried to explain, "Well…ah…um…just…just…just terrible things happen, that's what!"

Aniya laughed. "Okay, I get the point. So what do I have to wear to this ball thing? My ninja suit right? I've got a nice one with black trim."

Botan shrieked, "So you'll come?" Aniya nodded and took a step away from her. "Koenma will be soooo happy! Where to start? We'll have to get you a dress…"

"Excuse me? Did you just say dress? I am not wearing a dress."

"Yes you are, it's important that you make a good impression at this sort of thing. You'll have to have a big fancy one, with lots of fabric! I'll need one too!"

Aniya backed away, "Back away from the scary lady…"

*****

Yusuke and Kuwabara sat on a bench and watched as everyone walked by. "Urameshi, you're going to the ball thing, right?"

"Yup."

"Who're you bringing?"

"What?"

"Who. Are. You. Bring. Ing."

"Nobody."

"Why not?"

"Why not what?"

"Why aren't you bringing someone? *cough* Keiko *cough*"

"I can't bring her! Normal people would be freaked out to be at a party where they couldn't see a bunch of the guests."

"Oh."

"So, who are you bringing Kuwabara?"

"…"

"Sorry? I didn't hear that. Did you say you'll be bringing Yukina—oops, I'm sorry, I meant someone who I have never met before?"

"Stop making fun of me Urameshi. At least I express my feelings unlike someone here who ignores Keiko all the time."

"I don't ignore her, I just don't spend a lot of time with her. You know, this detective thing takes up more time that you'd think."

"Hahahahahaha! I told you. When it comes to this affection thing, I'm way better that you."

"Like Yukina would go with an idiot like you." Yusuke and Kuwabara turned around to see Hiei and Kurama standing behind them. "Hey, it's Hiei and Kurama. What's up?"

Kurama smiled, "Nothing much, and that's the problem I fear. We are growing bored, or at least one of us is, with nothing to keep us occupied. We couldn't help but over hear your conversation…"

"Bet you couldn't, but that's ok." They both turned to watch Kuwabara and Hiei fighting as usual. 

"Yukina wouldn't say yes."

"She will. Watch."

"I'll watch her say no."

"She'll say yes, you'll see."

"Yukina wouldn't say yes to such an ugly idiot."

"Who're you calling ugly?"

"You, obviously."

"Well, I can do better than you any day!"

"Really."

"Yukina's more likely to say yes to me than to you!"

"Hn."

"As a matter of fact, I bet you couldn't get any girl to go with you to this ball thing."

"Neither could you."

Yusuke stepped in, "Why don't we make it a sort of challenge? If Kuwabara gets a date, Hiei has to do what Kuwabara tells him to do. If Hiei gets a date, Kuwabara has to do what Hiei wants him to do. If neither of you get dates, you have to do what Kurama and I say. If both of you get dates, the challenge is nullified."

"Fine."

The other three stared at Hiei. Did Hiei just accept a bet with Kuwabara to get a date to the demon ball? Yusuke gaped. 'I wish I had a movie camera or something so I could capture this on tape.' Kuwabara shook his head. "I'll do it too. But one question."

"Yeah?"

"Do your dates have to actually arrive with you?"

Yusuke and Kurama sweat-dropped. "Yes Kuwabara. And they have to stay with you for the majority of the evening."

"Darn it!"

Yusuke rubbed his hands together. 'I'll get my video camera and get this all on tape. This will be fun.'

*****

Several weeks passed until there were only three days left until the big night. Everyone was in a state of excitement. Okay…everyone was in some state of anxiety, anger, frustration, or boredom. The only person in a state of excitement was a certain blue-haired grim reaper…

"Let's all go shopping!"

"For the last time, I'm not going to wear a dress!"

Aniya folded her arms and sat of the collection of stuffing, fabric and wood that was once a sofa. "I'm not wearing a dress and that is final. I haven't worn a dress since I was an extremely little girl and I won't start now!" She was still being bothered by the one and only annoying Botan, who was determined to get Aniya in a dress. "When I said I'd come, I didn't think I'd have to be extra feminine about it!" Smirking, she looked up at Botan.

"Aniya, be serious! You didn't think you could get away with out wearing a dress?"

"If I knew that formal dress was actually a dress, I wouldn't have accepted!"

"Oh really."

"What are the guys wearing?"

"Suits."

"So why can't I wear a suit?"

"Because you're not a guy."

"I spent the majority of my life pretending to be a guy so that I'd be treated the same. Now you're going to change all that and make me be a little prissy pansy?"

"I'm not changing you, I'm just asking you to wear a dress. How hard is that. It's only for a night."

"I could settle for a dressy suit."

"It's the dress or nothing."

"Why can't I wear my fighting outfit?"

"Oh, you can wear a fighting outfit, you just have to wear one that I supply for you."

"YES!! What color is it?"

"White."

"White? Is it like some sort of Sailor Moon thing?"

"Actually, it's the Pretty Sailor Twinkle-Toes costume set for six-year olds, that comes complete with sparkly fake fairy wings."

The ultimate look of horror came over Aniya's face. "What?"

"You have a choice to make. It's the dress, nothing or Pretty Sailor Twinkle-Toes. Take your pick."

Aniya slumped down in defeat. "I'll take the stupid fucking dress. Happy?"

Botan jumped up and down. "I knew that you'd come around eventually. We can go shopping tomorrow! Don't forget, you need to find an escort too!"

Aniya walked out, slamming the door behind her. 'Why did I even say yes in the first place? I hate people, I hate boring events and I hate fucking dresses! How could I possibly let Botan convince me into going?' She jumped into a tree and sat fuming on one of the larger branches. 'I am going to regret this for as long as I live.'

"Excuse me? Aniya?" Aniya was pulled out of her angry thoughts as she looked down at the red-haired, green-eyed someone who was looking up into the tree.

"Kurama! What's up?" She dropped from her branch and stood next to him. "I haven't seen you guys for the longest time…what have you guys been up to?"

"Shall we sit?" He asked, gesturing at a park bench. "I am afraid that nothing much has been happening. There is nothing to do since Koenma isn't assigning any missions. Apparently all the demons are taking a break as well because the majority of the people who would be a problem to the living world are contained in the spirit world or are actually attending the ball, so they are too busy preparing. I was actually looking for Hiei. You see, sometimes he just finds random trees and sits in them. I was quite surprised to find you there instead."

Aniya smiled, "I'm sorry if I disappointed you."

Kurama smiled back, "That is alright. How are you doing?" Seeing her face turn dark he quickly added, "Perhaps I shouldn't have asked."

"I am sooo pissed right now. I don't think I'll be able to cope with the dress, the hair, the people and just today, Botan told me that I needed an escort. Where the hell am I going to find an escort in two days? I don't even want an escort. It's not like I need one. And Botan is forcing me to go shopping for the dress tomorrow!"

Kurama looked at her with sympathy written all over his face. "I am sorry about the shopping, but the demon ball won't be that bad."

"Yes it will. I don't want to have to wear a dress. And how am I supposed to get an escort then if everyone I see either wants to fight with me, kill me or run away from me?"

"You need an escort?"

"Botan said it wouldn't be proper for me to go without an escort."

"If you want, I can serve as your escort."

"Really?" Aniya smiled and her eyes looked hopeful. "Would you really do that for me?"

He nodded. "I have no one to escort and at least this way I do not have to worry about the others getting on my back."

Aniya was confused. "On your back about what?"

He began to explain, "Well you see, Kuwabara and Hiei made this bet…" 

"Oh no you don't shorty! I get to ask first!"

"Baka."

Kurama and Aniya turned around to see Kuwabara and Hiei behind them. Yusuke was nearby with a video camera. "I can't wait to get this on tape. This should sell like fire on e-bay!" She looked at him with a funny look, but then she suddenly noticed Kuwabara was kneeling in front of her.

"Will you go to the demon ball with me."

"…"

"Please?"

"HELLLLLLL NO!"

"Why not?"

Aniya gaped. 'How stupid is this guy?' "You're ugly, you're stupid, and it's quite frankly amazing that you haven't been killed by some demon because you're so bad with your stupid-ass shiny spirit sword."

Kuwabara stood up. "Who are you calling ugly?"

Aniya turned to Kurama. "You'll notice of course, how he rushes to defend his appearance and totally ignores his intelligence, or lack there of." She smiled sweetly as Kuwabara. "Baka, the answer is no."

Kuwabara stomped off. Yusuke laughed, "You'd better ask Yukina Kuwabara or otherwise you'll have to do what one of us says! All night!"

Aniya shook her head. 'Boys will be boys and idiots will be absolute idiots.' Turning to Kurama, she was about to say this when she noticed someone else in front of her. It was Hiei, staring at her in a patronizing, bored manner. She stared back with a look that was increasing in anger by the second. "What do you want?"

Hiei remained silent. Aniya noticed that both Kurama and Yusuke were trying to contain laughter. Aniya looked at them , at Hiei, at Kuwabara stomping off and then back at Hiei.

"If you're going to ask what that baka just did, then the answer is…" She trailed off dramatically. 'I'm going to have a little fun with this….give it a little oomph for Yusuke's video.'

Yusuke was staring at her through the camera lens. 'Is she really considering saying yes? What the hell?'

Aniya smiled, "I don't see why not.." Kurama's and Yusuke's jaws dropped open as Hiei blinked. "Oh…wait…that's right…you tried to kill me…I hate your guts…so FUCK NO!!"

Hiei blinked again and then disappeared. Aniya turned to Kurama. "Is this what you were trying to tell me? Yusuke what is going on?"

Yusuke was laughing. "Well you see, we made a bet that neither Kuwabara or Hiei could get dates. Kuwabara's asked everyone, but there's been no luck so far. The only person who hasn't rejected him is Yukina. Hiei hasn't asked anyone. The closest he's gotten is what you just saw."

Aniya looked thoughtful. "Oh, I see. So I was a last resort? Is that it?"

Yusuke shuffled his feet, "Well….yeah…sorta…." He braced himself for a blast of an attack or something, but was completely surprised when Aniya smiled.

"It's so fortune that I already have an escort to the ball, so I am not offended in the least bit."

"You have an escort? Who"

"Me." Kurama said. 

"Kurama? You sly fox! I didn't think that you two…"

"We aren't. I am merely helping a friend."

"Sure…."

Aniya looked at him. "We aren't like that and if I hear you or anyone, well mainly you, say anything related in any way, shape or form to that topic, that person, basically you, won't be able to sit down for a very long time. Do you understand me?"

Yusuke backed away. "Yup. Loud and clear."

Aniya walked off, leaving Yusuke and Kurama alone with the stupid birds in the trees.

"You seriously asked Aniya to the ball."

"Yes."

"And she's going."

"Apparently so."

"And she's wearing a dress."

"Yes."

"I can't wait to see this!"

*****

"Are you sure that this dress isn't too big? I mean, the skirt is huge!"

"Aniya. This is a ball gown. It's supposed to be like that."

"So tell me again, why I have to wear this dress and not some modern, practical dress?"

"Because you are attending the social event of the century and you are also an honored guest."

Aniya grumbled as she made her way back to the dressing room to take off the dress. 'It's a good thing the guys from the Arena can't see me like this. I can't imagine anything worse than having to face Gantoi, Firenzy or Joe in something as girly as this.'

Walking out again, wearing her black t-shirt and jeans, she handed the dress to Botan. "Here you go. Let's get out of here."

Botan and Aniya got into line, and Aniya waited as Botan bought the thing. Leading Aniya out of the store, Botan sighed charismatically and looked at her list. "Okay. Got that done. Shoes next!"

Aniya stopped dead in her tracks. "What do you mean shoes? I thought we only had to buy the stupid dress!"

"Well, you weren't planning on going barefoot, were you?"

"No, but I can create this stuff at home."

"What?"

"I can create almost everything, and I am certain that I can make," she looked at Botan's list, "shoes, make-up, tights, purse, gloves, jewelry, hair accessories and…body glitter?"

Botan shrugged. "I thought you might like to experiment."

"Not with stuff that will win me the 'Best Little Pony' award!"

Giggling Botan relpied, "It would look wonderful in your silver hair."

"Really. See this face? This is not a happy face."

"Come on. Let's go back. If you're going to make this stuff, you're going to have to figure out what works best."

As Botan got her oar, she asked, "Have you found an escort like I told you to?"

"Yup."

"Who is it?

"Not telling."

"Why not?"

"Cuz. Who's bringing you?"

"Yusuke, unfortunately. Koenma seems to think that since Yusuke can't bring Keiko, he can bring me instead."

"Got it."

The two girls blasted back to spirit world, lugging the dress with them.

*****

Sani came into Kuwabara's room, bringing him the answer for the letter he had written to someone. "Thanks Sani. Remember, Aniya doesn't know that I asked for your help. Yusuke, Hiei and Kuwabara also don't know, right?"

'Right.' She flew off again, to join Aniya in her hide-out.

Nervously, he opened the letter…

Kazuma-san, I would be delighted to go with you to the Demon ball in two days.

Kuwabara's looked down and read Yukina's letter once again. "In your face shorty!!!!"

A/N: How was it? Keep on the look out for the Demon Ball. There's two chapters or something devoted to the demon ball. 


	9. Dreams and Preperations

Disclaimer and A/N: I don't own anything or anyone from YYH, but I do own my own characters. Just so the few people who are in fact reading this know, when I wrote this, I had only seen up to episode 25 (Yukina Rescue thing), so if any of my information is incorrect, I apologize.  (Review if you think it's worth your while, or if you're like me, just read it and check occasionally to see if I update it… (*-*) Yoda says "hi") *Note* the stupid italics aren't working again, so the dream that Aniya has is marked with little ~*~*~*~ things.

Dragons In Time

Part 9: Dreams and Preparations

Knock Knock! Anyia was fast asleep on the crumbling remains of her sofa. She failed to hear the energetic knockings at her front door because she was having one of those dreams again….

*~*~*~*

Anyia was floating in mid-air, in the middle of a vast pool of silvery white light. She discovered that outside of this pool of light, was complete and utter darkness. 'That's odd. Normally when I have these dreams where I talk to that messed dragon man there's only white and silver, sometimes a little blue, never black. I only ever see black in my dreams when that Sukeisa bastard is trying to communicate with me. Damn. This can't be too good.' She paused in her thoughts as a wizened dragon's head came into view.

"Oh, it's you. The dragon man. Come to lecture me about the legend again?"

The silver dragon shook his head. "No. I have something more important to discuss today. Please, this time, don't ignore any part of what I say."

Anyia frowned. "Will you cut with the rhyming crap? Every time you try to talk to me, it's always in stupid rhymes, so it's hard enough for me to understand what you're saying, never mind having to comprehend and figure out the underlying meanings and hints and everything."

The dragon sighed. "I am sorry if I talk like a freak, it is the only way I am permitted to speak. I need to speak with about this demon ball, otherwise, you won't be prepared for what will happen at all."

She jerked. "It's a demon ball for crying out loud. You don't think that Koenma hasn't figured out a little something we like to call security? It's the one-hundred and thirty-seventh demon ball! It's not like this is the first time around or anything. Besides, if there is trouble, Yusuke, Kurama, the baka and the idiot will be there."

"In normal times that would be alright, but the circumstances are different tonight."

"What do you mean, different?" Anyia was growing impatient, "How is tonight different than say, tomorrow night?"

"The date of the demon ball is fixed, and there are many guests, their backgrounds mixed. Some are more of a danger than others, but no that is no matter for most of them wouldn't mind killing their own mothers. There will be former killers, criminals and thieves, some think they may behave, but that is what Koenma believes. He is not stupid, there are some he must invite, but would rather have them carried, right out of his sight."

Anyia sighed and tried to figure out what that lot meant. "So, you're saying that even though he didn't want to, Koenma had to invite people that had bad reputations, just because they were important?" Seeing the dragon nod, she barged on, "but I don't see why the guys couldn't handle them. They fought the Toguro brothers and won, they defeated the Triad and they beat that Rando person. Why can't they handle a bunch of bad guys gone soft?"

The dragon continued, "One of the guests is a certain Lord Doukai, who is bringing his son, that boy is out for more than just a little fun. Watch him closely, for he may try something bad, especially to someone who can make gems when she's sad. Beware the Lady Calisandra, who is really a witch, she has some of Katomi's powers, she stole them from the bitch."

Anyia stood (or rather floated there) and stared in amazement at the dragon. "I am sorry for my vulgarity but it is hard, for all the time, to find a word that fits perfectly and does in fact rhyme."

"That's ok. So I just keep tabs on these two and everything will be okay. Right? That doesn't sound too hard. Why did you have to tell me this anyway. It's not like I couldn't have stopped them from doing…" She stopped because suddenly the light around her was starting to fade into blackness. She looked around and found the fading face of the dragon. "Dragon man! What does this mean? Why is the light disappearing?"

The dragon spoke quickly. "The light is my presence, the black is Sukeisa's energy and that is true, and if I don't let you wake up, he'll try to use telepathy to control you. Anyia, listen to me and don't speak because my time is limited before I have to close my beak. You are very accomplished and for your age, very wise, but there are some things that will come as a surprise. Don't listen to Sukeisa, he'll put you on the wrong path, and then the world with suffer from his wrath. There is something you need to know, and I know I shouldn't tell, but you seem to ignore every hint, so it's just as well." He took he deep breath. "Anyia, in case you haven't figured it out, as it may appear, but there is a reason that Sukeisa you might fear. You are the dracon, the dragon child in the tale and you need to follow the prophecy, you cannot fail." His voice started to fade away, "Find the last three frie…so that you can…fin… the last…the eigh… is not who you'd thi…its someone…from…your…." With that he was completely gone.

*~*~*~*

Anyia jolted up on the sofa. 'My god…so I was right…I am the dragon child who has to save the world. Why couldn't I see it before? Now I wish I knew what he meant in the last sentence. He was getting weak and fading away, so I couldn't understand everything he said. Dammit! Why does this always happen to me?!'

KNOCK KNOCK!!! "Anyia! I know you're in there! There's no use hiding from me! Come on, it's only me, Botan! Let me in! I insist! You didn't think I was going to let you just forget the whole ball thing, did you? Come, on them me in. I'm not going to torture you, I'm just going to help you get ready!"

Anyia groaned. "Coming Botan." 'Well, at least here's something to keep my mind off this prophecy thing. Maybe I can confide in her?' Opening the door, she let the girl in. Botan was just brimming with happiness and excitement. 

"Isn't this amazing? The demon ball! We have to get ready! Oh, and I know something…"

Anyia looked at her, 'Maybe confiding wouldn't be a good idea.' "Okay Botan, you have me stumped, what is it that you know?"

She squealed, "You're going to the ball with Kurama!"

Anyia sweat-dropped. "That's it? I could have told you that. Anyway, it's going to take us all day to get ready for the ball? I didn't think it takes that long to get into a dress."

Botan laughed. "Don't be silly Anyia! It doesn't take that long to get ready, but Koenma wanted me to bring you around to the palace so that you can get accustomed to it so that you're prepared to act as part of the security. But I think that was just a cover up because how can you be part of the security in a dress? Anyway, come on, let's go! We can take my oar. That way you don't set off any security detector things that are designed to pick up people who are flying without spirit energy."

As Anyia sat behind Botan on the oar, she tried to take all this in. 'What have I done to deserve this? First, bad dreams from my favorite rhyming guy, I have to wake up at this ungodly hour in the morning and then I have to be the laughing stock of the security tonight. Just great.' She looked down at the ground as the two girls came to a stop in front of the palace. 

"Wow. They've been decorating."

"It's a ball, of course there's decorations!"

"Of course, why couldn't I see that?" Anyia replied sarcastically. "It's a big social event with lots of people who are going to be decked out in peacock feathers and who knows what. We couldn't possible let the palace be shadowed by something like that!"

"My point exactly!" said Botan, missing the sarcasm in her excitement. "Come on. I have to drop you off with the other members of the group that will be in charge of subtle security."

"Subtle security? What about regular security? Don't they need to scope out the area too?"

Botan looked at her. "Regular security will be the guard and the servants that are in plain view. They don't need to learn the palace format because they work here as security twenty-four-seven. There's no need to wake them up this early. The subtle security group is more like diplomats. You look for things that normal people wouldn't look for, like abnormal spirit energy stuff or people who look like they might be preparing to attack someone. You're like the secret agents"

"Wonderful. I always wanted to be part of the social politics. So how many people on this subtle security group?"

"Seven. Eight if you want to include Genkai, but she won't be looking out a lot. The majority of the safety depends on that team to root people out who might be doing something that the regular guards won't notice. Also, the eight were picked, not only for their skills to recognize attacks, but to be able to prevent them, hopefully peacefully."

"Who's part of the security?" She said, walking into the room that Botan directed her to.

"HEY! DRAGON! Gantoi, it's the Dragon! We're working with the Dragon again!"

Anyia didn't bother to look anywhere but up as she preyed, 'God? Is this your way of punishing me? I swear, I'll buy a new sofa and I'll fix the TV for real this time. Please, don't tell me I have to work with Firenzy!' She lowered her face and ignored Firenzy. "Hey Gantoi, how's it going?"

"The crowd's really missing you. Joe's getting some of the old followers back though." The demon rambled up to her. "How are you doing? You seem to have quite a collection of friends." Anyia looked around at the other members of the group. Well, there were only three other people in the room at the moment. Joe, Gantoi and Firenzy. "Gantoi, I don't see anyone else here. What collection of friends?"

"HEY! GANTOI! DRAGON! LOOK IT'S THAT BLACK STRANGER DUDE! YOU KNOW, THE ONE THAT RUINED ANYIA? HE'S HERE TOO! THIS IS SOOOO COOL!!!!" Anyia turned to look as Kurama and Hiei walked into the room.

"To think that there's someone even worse than the baka." Anyia watched in horror as Firenzy bounced right up to Hiei and began to tap him on the shoulder. Then, when she thought he couldn't get any worse, Firenzy began talking really fast, (like he normally does) but then he went up and slung an arm around Hiei's shoulders. She could see Hiei stiffen and she decided to act.

But someone else had had the same idea. A fist came out of no where and knocked Firenzy unconscious. "That little guy can be a good fighter at times, but he's annoying as hell twenty-four hours a day." Joe looked up from where he was standing. "Hey, Anyia. How's it going?"

"Pretty good Joe. I hear that you had to take my spot. Tough luck on the new guy who has to become the fourth member until I get back. Good luck with the crowds on the Thursday. There's always some group of people that come on the Thursdays and they always manage to get a couple of lunatics to run widely in the Arena like it's a circus."

"Oh, so that's what they were doing. I thought that was a new attack." He smiled. "Hey Gantoi, never thought I'd see you here. Did Firenzy tag along?"

"As usual. I told him he wasn't invited, but he didn't seem to take the hint."

Anyia added, "That's Firenzy for you. Quick on his feet but as slow as a rock in the head. Maybe he and Kuwabara should get together sometime. They could forma a 'Save the Stupid' group or something."

"Who're you calling stupid?" Kuwabara and Yusuke entered the room, making the last two members of the special security group. 

"You, of course. Who else would I be talking about?" She saw Gantoi and Joe's looks. "Oh, guys? This is Gantoi, currently Second Highest demon at the Arena, and this is Joe, who's number one. Joe? Gantoi? May I present Yusuke Urameshi. He's the spirit detective. This is Kurama, he's a fox demon, in case you didn't know. The short person over there in the corner is Hiei and there is Kuwabara over there. You can call him baka though. Everyone else does." She hoped that Joe and Gantoi hadn't picked up on the fact that Hiei was the one who had rejected her the first time she asked for a match.

Gantoi and Joe nodded their heads to say hello and then turned to see who was coming in the door. It was Koenma, in his teenage form (obviously).

"Hello Yusuke, Anyia. I hope you have been introduced to the two temporary members of the squad, Gantoi and Joe. Everyone listen up. You are part of the secret security. This means that you will be responsible for special attacks that some of these demons know and may try to use. I don't think there will be any problems, but you're here just in case. You guys will be making sure that people who appear to be dangerous are removed. My security guards will be responsible for weapons and other regular matters. So it's up to you to make sure that no one gets killed." He looked at the fallen form of Firenzy on the floor. "I hope we don't see anything like this tonight. I wanted you to come in early so that you could get to know each other, so that you have signals or something for in the event that something does happen and so that you are familiar enough with the rooms that the ball will be taking place so that you that you'll be more likely to notice if something is wrong. Understand? Good. Ogre!"

The blue ogre ran in and escorted Koenma out. Anyia walked over to Joe and Gantoi. "So how'd you guys get stuck doing this? I mean, it's hardly something the cough would assign to you guys. You're missing a whole day of battles. That's going to cost the CAF a bunch. Who's going to go watch people other than the top four fight?"

"The CAF closed the Arena for today."

"WHAT?!"

Joe explained, "Apparently, all the guys from the CAF were mysteriously invited to this ball thing. They said the only way that you could get them to come was if some of their own men were in the security group."

Anyia saw the logic in this, "Of course. They're men who make and break criminals. Of course there'd be people after their guts, so it would be good to have people they trust working for their safety. And they would want you guys to get acquainted with the surroundings so you can tell the difference between a harmless, regular palace plant, and say something that Kurama might have planted to get rid of certain individuals."

Gantoi nodded. "I don't think there's much we can do though. The palace is pretty ornate and most of the threatening stuff will come with the guests themselves."

Looking at her other group of friends to make sure that they were paying too much attention and she lightly raised the question, "So how many of them are actually coming? I know that none of them would be too happy with being exposed in public."

"All of them."

"What? All of them? Really? Wow. They must have a lot of nerve to show up here being who they are."

Gantoi and Joe glanced at each other. "We could probably say the same for you."

Anyia gave them a confused look, "Why?"

"Well, you were to top fighter for years and most people accepted the fact that you were small because you were powerful. They would have killed you if they knew you were a girl…"

"…so now there is a group, they call themselves the CEF, and they're out for your blood. They don't like the fact that so many good fighters were killed and lost to a girl. I'd say you showing up is asking for your execution."

Anyia gave them a pained look. "Guys…don't you think that I can take care of myself? I lived on the streets for the first eight years of my life as a girl, and managed to live. Then I survived all those years in the Arena. Come on, I thought you'd have more faith in my abilities. The CEF? Wow. That's pretty serious, but I think I can take care of it.

Gantoi nodded. "Right on target as always Anyia. So I'd watch out for anyone suspicious."

Rubbing her head, Anyia groaned, "Too many people to be watching all at once…first the upper brats, then the rooms, now practically everyone else…on top of that I'm going to be in an uncomfortable situation…dammit. Maybe I should just come in my ninja gear and pretend to be one of the freaking servants." Anyia thought she'd said that softly enough, but when her hand came away from her face she saw everyone except Hiei looking right at her from about a foot away.

Yusuke asked, "Are you okay, Anyia? If you don't want to do the security thing, let Koenma know and we can find a substitute."

She stiffened and replied icily, "I am no weakling. I will be fine." With that she turned on her heal and marched out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Gantoi and Joe looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, 'oh shit.'

Kurama looked at the two fighters. "What was that about, with the CAF and CEF?"

"The CFA is the group of people that fund and run the Arena. They hold the contests to determine who will be on the fighting roster every year, who needs to go, who can stay, who gets to be in the top four and what rank they are. They also fund the tournaments that are held there, privately every so often.," Joe explained, "CAF stands for Committee for Arena Fighters. Sometimes, when they think that business is slow, the CAF appoint a group of highly trained demons, ones that don't fight in the Arena and they send them out to track down and kill that fighter, so there is no chance of that fighter entering the Arena. They named themselves the CEF or Committee of Eliminated Fighters. That way, if they need to talk, they can say CEF or the committee and not raise a lot of speculation."

Yusuke looked thoughtful. "You seem to know a lot about this CEF. So you think that Anyia is their new target?"

Joe shrugged. "I  can't say. It all depends of which way the CAF thinks it can make more money."

"Say what?" (You can guess which baka—oops I mean person this is.)

Gantoi explained patiently, "The CAF will reach a decision based on what fights make the most money. Would more people come to see some new champion fight? Or would the fans rather come to see the current female champion beat the shit out of other demons? I think they'd say a new champion. People, especially demons don't like to be perceived as weak. So if there's a girl down there, who'd challenge her? No one, because they wouldn't want to lose their face. So the CAF would profit more if they had one last fight, where all the odds were stacked against her. Knowing them, they'd wear her down, drug her, then put her in a match where she could beat everyone except for a hidden good fighter. That way, they could legitimately put a new champion in Anyia's place."

Joe added on, "The CAF has two choices: get rid of Anyia by any means possible, or attempt to take her. I don't know what she meant about watching the socialites."

Kuwabara tried to join in, "But she didn't say socialites, she said upper brats."

"Upper brats is her name for the upper class people, like the members of the CAF, who are wealthy and aren't in the habit of give money to charity or the poor. In other words, the gamblers, the people who hire assassins. You can't trust them. Things happen to other people, not them. She hates those people who think that death is something they can play with." Gantoi tried to explain. "She'd be one of the first people to say that she plays death, but she does so at her own risk. She's had too many close encounters to be satisfied with people like the upper brats."

Joe nodded in agreement. "It's probably a good thing that she got out of the Arena before it really controlled her life. She'd end up hating herself. I'm happy that she's found something to keep her interested in. She really needs friends."

Yusuke snorted. "From the way that she acted, you'd think she'd never want any friends. She's like a female version of Hiei. Someone who never wants to be attached because they're afraid they'll bring you down."

Gantoi shook his head, "That might have been how she started, but I think she likes having friends. Or comrades as she would probably call you guys." He looked at Joe, "So, Joe. Want to look around?" Looking back at the group, he said, "Catch you guys all here tonight."

Yusuke stopped them, "What are we going to use for communication? I mean, walkie talkies are going to look suspicious and hand signals get confusing. Besides," he said looking at Gantoi, "I suspect Gantoi over there'd have problems doing hand signals."

Kuwabara just realized it. "Yeah, the guy's like a dinosaur. Where are you going to fit?"

Gantoi and Joe smiled at each other. "Oh, you'll see me around, maybe. I hear the flowers are pretty at this time of year, aren't they Joe?"

"They certainly are Gantoi. Say, you like flowers a lot, so I guess you'll be checking out the gardens?"

Kuwabara didn't seem to take the hint. "That's girly, to like flowers. Nobody's who's a man has anything to do with flowers and prissy plants and things like that."

Yusuke coughed, *baka*. Kuwabara, once again, missed the hint. Hiei snorted in his corner as Kurama spoke. "Kuwabara, I'm sorry you think that way. Anyway, I suggest we just use telepathy. Hiei, Anyia and Sani can be used as contacts. If we break into pairs or something, then there will be one telepath for every pair. There will be one person left over, but he can form a trio with another pair."

Joe and Gantoi nodded. "If that's all, I think we'd better get back to the Arena."

Kuwabara looked confused, "I thought you said it was closed for today."

Joe rolled his eyes. "It is, but haven't you heard of a little something called maintenance? The night crews can't get everything. Besides, just because we have the day off from the Arena doesn't mean we have a day off from training or fighting. To rest for a day is to die in the Arena. See you all here tonight."

Anyia watched them collect Firenzy and go from her hiding spot. After she had left the room, she had re-entered invisibly.  'Hmm. So they think that the CEF is after me. Just another thing to watch my back on. Lord Doukai…his stupid son…that Calisandra…the assassins…irregular people…be a telepath…and watch my own back…while being in a fucking dress! What did I do to deserve this? Please god, tell me!' She listened to snatches of Joe's and Gantoi's conversation.

"Anyia's really wound up about this thing, isn't she?"

"I'd say so, Gantoi. I mean, I've never seen her just walk out with a bad temper like that."

"Good thing she has friends to help her." Anyia stiffened, 'So they still think that I'm weak because I'm a girl.

"Yeah, I guess. But I bet it's just nerves. You know how hard it would be to go around being a nameless face or rather a faceless name, and then suddenly have to prove to everyone that you're who you really are?"

"Joe, could you possibly be anymore vague and confusing?"

"Sorry Gantoi."

"I guess you're right though. I mean, since when has she worn a dress? It'll be a challenge for her to try to fit in with all the other upper class bitches…" Anyia smiled, 'You couldn't have been anymore right, Gantoi.' Then she turned her attention to the conversation that the guys were having. 'I can't believe the idiot was so….idiotic. To think that he would have insulted Kurama right then and there. Too bad Kurama isn't allowed to kill him…too bad I'm not allowed to kill him.' She couldn't hear quite what they were saying, so she edged a little farther out, away from the pillar she was hiding behind.

"Okay, we need to break into pairs. Kurama, go with Hiei. Anyia and Kuwabara can come with me. Gantoi and Joe can use Sani, I guess."

Anyia revealed herself. "There is no way in hell that I am spending the entire evening stuck with the baka."

The entire group turned their heads. "When did you come back?"

She smirked, "I never left. That was a fake image of me walking through. I tossed on an invisibility spell and slammed the door. I've been here the entire time." She looked at Kuwabara, "and can I say that those comments about flowers were possibly the most stupid things to have come out of your mouth."

He blinked. Yusuke took the upper hand of the situation. "So how do you propose we do this?"

Anyia folded her arms. I say that we don't break into pairs, because that would be pointless. The ball will be filled with people and eight people can spread out a lot more and cover more ground that four pairs of two. Give Sani to the baka, because he'll to incompetent to find either me or bandage face over there. Then everyone else just come and find one of the telepaths. Don't worry about Gantoi and Joe. Joe can find a contact for Gantoi, since Gantoi will be in the garden."

Kuwabara was once again in stupid ignorance (that's kind of redundant…) "Oh…I get it…he's going to be spending time looking for the flowers that could be used as weapons! You guys thought I was too stupid to figure it out, but there!"

Everyone sweat-dropped. "Umm, Kuwabara, I don't think that's what the guy meant."

Anyia nodded. "Gantoi is doing what he has always wanted to do since he was really little."

"What, smell flowers?"

"No baka. Wait for tonight and see if you can figure it out."

The doors flew open. "Come on Anyia! We'll be late for the hair appointments!" Botan rushed in and grabbed Anyia's hand. "Hurry up! We don't want to go to the ball looking like something the cat dragged in do we?"

Anyia winced as she was hauled onto Botan's oar and before she left, she could hear Kuwabara and Yusuke laughing their heads off as Kurama smiled and Hiei smirked. Anyia turned around and aimed and electrical attack at Kuwabara.

"AHHHHHH!!! PAIN!!! OWWWWWW!!!!"

'That should suit the baka.' Then she turned back around and prepared to face what was probably the first of many difficult challenges that she would encounter that day.

A/N: So how was it? I realize it isn't great and I promise that the demon ball is happening in the next part. 


	10. The Demon Ball

Author's Notes: This is long if I remember correctly. Please enjoy.

In case the italics don't work, *~*~*~* means a flash back or a dream. ***** is a change in point of view.

Dragons in Time

Part 10: The Demon Ball

Botan landed the oar right in front of Aniya's hide-out, in the alleyway by the Chinese take-out shop. "Good bye, Aniya. Don't forget: you need to leave before the ball actually starts so you can get there on time!"

"Thanks Botan. I won't forget."

"If you need any help with your hair or your dress please let me know."

"Thank you Botan. I'll see you later."

"You know how to contact me in case something happens?"

"Yes Botan. Bye."

"Good. Don't forget to actually arrive with your date, other wise you'll stand out!"

"Botan? Good bye." Aniya quickly ran, dragging the dress along with her. "My god, I swear she's as annoying than Firenzy can be sometimes. Wait, what am I saying? Someone as annoying as Firenzy? I must be out of my mind—she's more annoying than him!" Slamming the door behind her, she entered her little hide-out.

'I still don't want to go to the fucking ball in this stupid piece of crap. I don't believe that I ever said yes.' She threw herself down on the sofa (may it rest in pieces). Then she realized that this was messing up her hair. 'To hell with this.' She was about to remove the fans when she thought how angry Botan would be. 'It wasn't as if I behaved badly. It's not my fault that plastic dummy wigs burn. Thank goodness the fire department got there in time, otherwise, Botan would have killed me. Oh well, better leave them in.' 

She stared at the wall for about five seconds before jumping up. "Dammit. I can't just sit here for two hours. I need to do something. See someone." She stopped. "Hey, maybe he would? Nah, probably not, but it's worth a try. Sani! Sani, you here?"

With that said, Sani flew in through the open window. "Sani, where have you been? I need you to send a message to Kurama."

'Bailing out, are you?' The little dragon was panting. 'Damn, that was close. She nearly knew that I was delivering messages for Kazuma.'

"What was that Sani?"

'Damn. I forgot that I can't think around you without you knowing what I'm saying.'

"So what was this about delivering messages for Kuwabara?"

'He wanted to know if I would assist him. I delivered a letter to Yukina for him and returned with her reply.'

"Oh?"

'Apparently, he was worried that he wouldn't be able to invite her to the ball because he didn't know if the post office delivered to the ice world.'

"Dumb ass."

'My thoughts exactly. I was about to say no, but then I decided that I would help, on the account of your wanting to meet Yukina.'

"How thoughtful of you Sani," Aniya replied sarcastically.

'Anyway, she accepted and now he has a date. You know what that means.'

Aniya smiled, "Yup. Hiei has to do what the baka tells him to do at the ball, right?"

'Right. You said you wanted me to deliver a message to Kurama?"

"Ask him if I can come over early." 

The little dragon gave her a look. 'Why would you want to do that? You two aren't…are you?'

Aniya clenched her teeth and balled her hands into fists. "Why does everyone think that we're together? We're just friends! Oh my fucking god!! I'm bored out of my mind and I don't want to just sit here and think about the stupid legend that I'm supposed to be working on! Just deliver the message!!"

Sani squirmed. 'Why don't you just use telepathy? It'll save both of us some time.'

"Because I have the decency to respect other people's minds. Unlike some people *cough* Hiei *cough*. Besides, I'm a good girl. I don't show up where I'm not invited."

'Fine, okay. I'll deliver the message. Happy?'

Aniya smiled at Sani as she flew out the window. Then she began to assemble everything that Botan had made her create. "Let's see. Shoes, make-up, what she calls 'essential fashion accessories' otherwise known as 'fucking pieces of shit' and the dress." She shoved the lot in her duffle bag and was waiting impatiently for Sani to come back.

*****

Lord Doukai sat in a chair, watching many television screens. Each of which showed a different angle of a certain silver-haired dracon. 'Yes, she's nervous. That will be good. In an unfamilar setting, where she won't be completely sure of what's expected of her, yes, this will be very easy indeed. Just one little drop and everything will be perfect.' A grin planted itself on his aging face, "Yes, Aniya. This time, we will do this right."

Tarukon stood several feet behind his father. 'She's pretty. Even prettier than she was when she was in the hospital.' Shaking his head, he glanced at his father. "Father? I believe you said that you needed me?"

"Wanted to speak to you is more like it." His father swung around in his chair. "I hope you are aware of how much this missions means for us. This is vital that we get to her before the CEF. I also ask that you stay clear from her because I don't want any mess-ups. You remember what happened last time, don't you…"

*~*~*~*

_"Ah-ah-ahchoo!" The little girl was sneezing, each time, revealing either wings or claws. "I think I'm sick."_

_Lord Doukai held the little girl in his arms. "That's all right, Aniya. The doctors will fix you."_

_"Fix me? How?"_

_"They're going to give you a little dose of medicine, that's all. Then you can go back to where you came from, okay?"_

_"I'm not sure…"_

_He carried her into a room, where there were a lot of scary doctors. They were all wearing white ninja suits. Aniya noticed this and commented, "Why aren't they wearing lab coats? These aren't the doctors!"_

_Twisted her around and putting her on a chair, he strapped her down with spirit-energy-enforced bands. "You're right Aniya. These aren't your doctors. These are your executioners." To the 'doctors' he said, "Go ahead boys. Just make sure that she never becomes a threat to me again. Do you understand?" When all the doctors replied that they did, he left the room, laughing. _

_One of the people walked right up close to Aniya. "Hold still little girl, this may hurt a bit. We're only sticking a ten-inch needled into your head!" He began to laugh as he got the syringe ready. (And because this always happens, there is a close up shot on the syringe as he empties it out until it's at the right level. Of course, it squirts some of the strange pink liquid out as he does so, and then there is a shot of Aniya looking worried as she's strapped down to the chair.) Aniya squirmed as he approached._

_"NOOOO!!!" She turned her face away into a corner as he came closer. She saw a little boy her own age, staring from a corner of the room. He had black hair and gray eyes. He was watching it horror as the man came closer to her. _

_'I have to do something. I know!' He crept over to the emergency alarm and pulled it. Immediately, alarms began to sound and the doctors started running around. The lights dimmed, but flashing lights soon lit the room again. The little boy ran over to where Aniya was struggling to get out of her bonds. He began to unbuckle the bonds and Aniya asked, "Who are you?"_

_He didn't answer, except her pulled her off the chair and ran down a hallway, where there was no one. Turning he faced her. "My name's Tarukon."_

_"My name's Aniya. Why did you help me and what were they trying to do?"_

_"I don't like what my father does. He finds weird demons and hands them over to people that he calls the freak squad. They try to make them normal, or at least normal looking. I think they were trying to get rid of those wings and claws of yours."_

_Aniya noticed that she had stopped sneezing, so her wings and her claws were both hidden once again. "What was the pink stuff that they were using?"_

_"From what it's done before, I think that it's used to 'clip' bird wings. It dissolves a piece of the wing off so they can't fly. From the dosage they were going to use, I would say they were trying to clip your entire wing off. The syringe didn't touch you, did it?"_

_Aniya shook her head. "Nope, and thanks. I hafta go." Suddenly, the crazy ninja-doctor people came running down the corridor. "There she is! Get her!" Aniya tried to run with Tarukon, but he fell and she went to help him. The doctors grabbed her._

_"Tarukon!" She grabbed at him, as if that would make the doctors let go. She released her claws and she scratched three little scratches on his neck before her grip was loosened. Kicking and screaming the whole way back, she fought them as they put her in the chair again. _

_Then she began to glow. Brilliant white light filled the room, blinding all the of crazy ninja-doctor-people. Tarukon finally made it back to the room, but his father was there too. "Tarukon! Traitor! How could you mess this up?!" He grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and hauled both their asses out of there, into a helicopter. As the helicopter pulled away, Tarukon stared out of the window and he saw a little figure fly away. 'Aniya…'_

_*~*~*~*_

Both father and son snapped back to reality. Doukai stood. "It was quite amazing that she didn't remember you, me or anyone intimately involved in that incident. I would have killed you if she had remembered. This time however, we will be more cautious and throw different opponents at her. I won't have the chance of you getting in the way again. If this was other than Koenma's demon ball, I would have prohibited you from going, but as it is, I cannot prevent you from going."

He took a step closer to his son. "I will say this though. If you come anywhere near Aniya, or anywhere near Nara Ska, I will make sure that you never have the chance to mess anything up again. Do I make myself clear?"

Tarukon nodded. "Yes, sir." 'Are you joking you old bastard? I will do everything in my power to make sure that Aniya sees me. I'm sure she'll remember me.'

Satisfied with his son's answer, Lord Doukai turned back to his chair "And in the even that you were hoping to catch glimpses of her, or of dancing with her, forget it. I have everything planned out perfectly. You will be escorting Calisandra to the ball, and it will be your social duty to make sure that you are there with her every single minute."

Tarukon stared at his father in horror. "I am not going to the demon ball with such a slut."

"Slut? My boy, she's rich, she's pretty and she's popular. What's the matter with her?"

"She's stupid, she's obnoxious and she's out for the family fortune. I hate her."

Lord Doukai glowered. "You _will_ be escorting Miss Calisandra to the ball, you _will_ stay with her the entire time, you _will_ be a perfect gentleman to her and you _will_ stay away from Aniya. Is _that_ understood?"

Tarukon turned on his heal and stormed out the door. Lord Doukai put his head in his hands. "I will never understand him. Just when I think that he's on my side, he's really with them. Timbles!"

The little butler who had served Katomi entered the room. "Yes, sir?" 'What the hell do you want fucking bastard?'

"I need you to summon Calisandra and Nara Ska for me."

"Certainly, sir." 'Hell no. Why don't you get your lazy-ass self off that fucking chair of yours and get them yourself?'

"And I need you to get the limo ready…"

"Of course, sir." 'I think the bloody bastard should walk.'

"That will be all, Timbles."

"Sir." 'I liked serving the crazy Katomi bitch more than you. At least she knew what a servant really was.'

"Oh, one last thing Timbles?"

'I don't believe this piece of shit,' "Yes, Lord Doukai?"

"Work on your attitude a little. It's not quite "british butlerish" enough. We don't want to drop the standards, now do we?"

"Of course not sir." 'Hell yes. We will lower the standards if we want to!' Timbles walked out as least stiffly as he could. 

Lord Doukai turned to watch Aniya as she made her way over to Kurama's house. "My dear, it will be my turn to show you who's boss very soon."

*****

Aniya stood in front of a normal, human house. She was already wowed by the fact that it was a house. 'I thought all fighters lived in dingy places. Guess not.' Knocking on the door, she hoped that Kurama's mother wouldn't ask too many questions.

_KNOCK KNOCK!_ Shiori looked up from her cooking and wondered who could be at the door. "Suichi? Will you get that? I'm in the middle of cooking something!"

Kurama walked down the stairs. "Certainly. I think I know who it is anyway." Walking to the front door, he opened it. "Hello Aniya. Come right in." He showed her to the living room. "If you want, you may leave your bags and other possessions here. I don't think that you want to bring them up to my room."

"Suichi? Who is it?" Aniya looked confused for a moment before looking through his memory and finding that he was Suichi Minamino in the human world. Shiori came in. "Ah, Suichi, who is this fine young lady?"

"Mother, this is Aniya. I am bringing her to the dinner party tonight. Aniya, this is my mother."

Aniya took the hand that Shiori held out to her. "Pleased to meet you Mrs. Minamino. This is a very nice place you have here."

"Why thank you Aniya. How sweet of you. Run along upstairs and Suichi will be with you in a moment."

Aniya followed the direction of her finger and walked up the stairs. She looked at the pictures on the wall. 'Ahhh, here's one with Kurama as a baby. It's sooo cute.' Walking into his room, the first thing she noticed was—

"He's got a sofa!" She raced over to it and started to bounce on it. 'This is so cool! It's an acutal sofa that looks like one! Oh, my god. I wonder if he'll let me take it with me! Ah! Sofa! Sofasofasofasofasofasofasofasofa SOFA!!!'

Kurama walked up to his room to find a very happy dracon bouncing on his sofa. "Aniya? Are you feeling all right?"

She nodded. "You have a sofa!" Kurama sweat-dropped. "Yes, I do."

Aniya saw his weird expression. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's just that I've always dreamed of having a real sofa. Mine's in ruins and it was when I got it, so this is the first time I've ever sat on a real sofa before." She smiled again before she started bouncing up and down once more.

Kurama sat down in his wheely desk chair. "Are you all right? I was wondering since you are not the type to normally go socializing."

Aniya stopped bouncing. "I had another one of the dreams."

"One of the ones from Sukeisa?"

She shook her head. "No, one from the dragon man. He said that I had watch out for these people called Calisandra, Lord Doukai and Tarukon. That was the most important part. Except for the fact that he told me that I was the stupid dragon child in the legend, that I only made four of the eight friends and that I needed to find the last three soon, so I can be friends with the eighth. I assumed Yukina would be the eighth, but apparently, he tried to tell me that she wasn't."

Kurama looked at her, "Are you saying that he might be implying that one of the others is the eighth one?"

Aniya nodded. "But I can't think of who it would be. The only people I have to be friends with are the idiot, the old lady and the toddler. I don't think that any of them are going to be the secret weapon that I need to fight Sukeisa. Anyway, how am I supposed to make friends with the idiot? We're practically enemies."

"By idiot, I assume you mean Kuwabara?"

Aniya shook her head. "No, that dumb-ass Hiei."

"Oh. Well, it might not be as difficult as it seems. After all, you two have a lot in common."

"Like what?"

"You were both only children, you were both social outcasts, you both have a flair for being quite violent in situations, you have similar temperaments, and you have the same level of control for your spirit energy."

Aniya's mouth dropped open. "First of all, he has a sister, I don't. He had a family to be cast out from, I didn't. I was on my own since day one. Then he was adopted by the theives, so I wouldn't call his childhood exactly a hardship. He is plenty more violent than I am, but I'm smarter. He'd be the first to jump into a situation he knew nothing about, while I tend to wait until I've weighed my options."

Sani decided to jump in, 'but you'd wait two seconds verses his one second, is that it?'

"Shut up Sani. Also, how can you say that we act the same? He has more friends, which means that he's weaker because he has more crutches that can be used to hurt him."

'But a bunch of his friends are your friends too.'

"Shut. Up. Sani!" Then Aniya got quiet. "Beside, he has a lot more control over his spirit energy than me. I have no control over mine."

Kurama was confused, "But when you fought…"

Aniya shook her head. "I use my spirit energy to power my magical attacks. I don't actually use my spirit energy for the attacks. The last time I used my spirit energy was in a hospital and the entire ten mile radius around it was instantly destroyed. I can't control it well enough for it to be safe. So I use either my magical energy or spirit energy that other people shoot at me and use that to fight." Shaking out of her slum, she gave Kurama a stern look. "How can you even think of comparing me to someone who has hair that makes him look like a skunk?"

"Well, you're no better. You look like a table lamp."

Kurama and Aniya turned to see Hiei crouching on the window sill.

"Hello Hiei. I'm glad that you decided to come after all."

"Hn." He got down from the window sill and cautiously moved away from Aniya, who would have moved to the opposite side of the room, if it had been normal circumstances. But this was a sofa she was sitting on. A real _sofa_. She wasn't going to move if her life depended on it. She turned to Kurama, "See what I mean? Totally different attitudes."

"I wouldn't say that Aniya. You will note that both of you reacted in exactly the same way."

"Are you still trying to compare us? Give it up. We are nothing alike. Nothing. Read my lips. Nothing. Alike."

Kurama shrugged and looked at the clock on the wall. "Well, we have just under forty-five minutes before we have to leave. I suggest that we all begin to get ready."

Aniya swore. "Damn, and I thought I could get away with not wearing the dress. Fuck this shit."

"Aniya, where is your dress?"

She smiled, "Oh, it's downstairs. In my…bag…" She smacked her forehead. "Great, now it'll be covered in wrinkles. How the hell am I supposed to fix that?"

"I suppose you could iron it."

"IRON IT??! I have no skills when it comes to doing chores around the house. My life doesn't revolve around having to iron clothes. The last time I checked, armor didn't need ironing!" Aniya was freaking out. "One thing after another. First dragon man, then security, now this! Why is my life so fucked up??!"

"Because you made it that way, baka."

She whirled on him, standing and getting into a fighting stance. "Like I would choose to make my life that messed up."

"You can never tell with idiots."

"Take that back."

"Hn."

"Dumb-ass is that the only comeback you can think of?"

"Fool."

"Ass hole."

"Idiot."

"Son of a bitch. Or should I say, son of an icy bitch?"

"Baka."

"Bastard." 

"Will you two please stop? I am going downstairs to iron Aniya's dress. Can you two stay here and promise not to kill each other?" At this point, both of them were inches away from each other, with some form of weapons out, ready to kill. Kurama was trying to break it up by standing between them (which probably wasn't the best idea in the world, but hey, even smart people have to be stupid sometimes). Holding his hands out, "Do you think that you two can handle ten minutes alone without beating each other into different dimensions?"

"Hn."

"Maybe."

Kurama sighed and left, closing the door behind him. 'If this doesn't work, I don't know what will.'

"Hn."

"Is that the best you can do?"

"Lamp shade."

Aniya froze. "That's it. I'm losing the fans. I never liked them anyway." 

Hiei watched her as she pulled the metal contraptions out of her hair, letting her hair fall loose. "Then why were you wearing them in the first place?"

She sighed. "Botan thought it'd be a good idea for me to cut my hair. Of course, I don't trust anyone with sharp metallic objects near my head. So I put up a fight. Botan finally bought these in the end and put them in herself. She seemed ready to kill me."

"Why should that phase you?"

"She had this evil look in her eye and I think that after burning down the hair salon, I did what she told me to. Just because she wouldn't leave me alone."

"Hn."

"Stop your fucking 'hn' will you? That's all you ever do. 'Hn', 'hn', 'hn'. All fucking day long!"

"At least I don't have to wear a dress."

"You're a guy, so obviously you wouldn't wear a dress." Then Aniya thought of something. "Hey, wait a minute, what are you wearing. You can't go in that."

"Why not?" Hiei was getting bored with this conversation.

"Because it's against the rules."

"Rules of what? Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, I don't follow the rules."

"Sure you don't." Aniya rolled her eyes. "Then why isn't Kuwabara dead?"

Hiei blinked. "Because the baka makes Yukina happy."

Aniya sat down on the sofa. "Jeeze, just say 'my sister'. Everyone knows for crying out loud! She's probably the only one who doesn't!"

"Hn."

"What did I say about the hn? I told you to stop it."

"Why should I listen to you?"

Aniya turned around and shut up. 'Okay…so let me review. All I have to do is watch out for the important people, the CAF, the CEF, Lord Doukai, his son, Calisandra and whoever else plans to bug me. Dammit…too many people.'

"So you two managed to let each other live. I'm glad." He handed Aniya her dress. "Here's your dress. I did the best that I could. The scarf was somewhat difficult. I also brought your bag up because I thought you'd need it. There's a bathroom down the hall to the left that you can use to get changed in."

"Thanks." Aniya smiled and walked to aforementioned location. Kurama turned to Hiei and gestured toward the black cloak, white scarf ensemble. "Hiei, you do not seriously think that you could get away with wearing that to the ball."

"Hn. I'll wear what I want."

"Not if you're going to the ball. I took the liberty of renting a tuxedo for you."

"I am not wearing a tuxedo."

"You're starting to sound like Aniya."

"Hn. Fine."

Kurama smiled. "Here you go. It's not as bad as you think. There's another bathroom down the hall on the right."

Grumbling, Hiei made his way to the other bathroom. Meanwhile, Aniya was having a crisis. 

"Great, now how am I supposed to do my hair? Never mind the fact that I totally destroyed Botan's 'master piece'! The only thing I can do is put it up in a pony tail." Then she smacked her face, "That's it! I'll just do this…." She pulled her hair up, "…and then do this…" She tugged out two strands of her hair in the front of her face, "…next I put a little of this in…" she took a bottle from her bag called "Curlz X-treme" and sprayed a lot on, "…and finally I twist these around…" she curled the ends of the two strands in front of her face, "…and I'm done." She surveyed her hair in the mirror. 'Not that bad.'

"Sani?"

'Yes, your royal curliness?'

"Can you do my make up?"

'…'

"Please?"

'Why can't you do it yourself?'

"Because I've never worn make up before in my life and I have no idea how to use it!"

'And you think I'm going to do a lot better because…?'

"Because you can actually see what you're doing."

'Beside the fact that you could do the same thing by looking in the mirror.'

"Please Sani?" Then she had an idea. Grabbing the little dragon, she shoved a spray bottle in her face. "Do my make up or I'll spray you completely with body glitter. Then I'll make sure that you have enough hair-spray on to make it stick to your scales."

If Sani could have paled, she would have out of horror. 'Okay, okay! Just no glitter.' Aniya smiled as the little dragon started fingering the make up compartments. 'Here goes nothing.'

*****

"How long can a stupid ningen possibly take to put on some make up?"

"Patience Hiei. She is probably nervous and she is heading into a new branch of society that she has never had to deal with before. I would not criticize her too harshly."

"Hn."

Aniya walked in timidly. "Does it look okay?" 

"You still look like a table lamp." Kurama glowered at him and then nodded, looking at the big black ball gown to her curly hair and her face, adorned with light make up. "Sani did my make up and I'll be glad when I can take it off."

Moving, Hiei walked to the door. "We should leave." Kurama nodded and the two of them were instantly surrounded by light. "Um…guys?"

"Yes?" Kurama turned around. "How am I supposed to get there?"

"Fly, baka."

"I can't."

Kurama was puzzled. "I thought that you could fly. You clearly did so when we traveled to Katomi's castle."

Aniya nodded. "Yes, but my fighting clothes are specially designed to accommodate wings. They transform to fit with the wings and claws. This dress, which Botan bought at a regular human store, does not."

"Then teleport, idiot."

She turned to face the other midget. "I could do that, but it would be risky. It would be highly unlikely that I would manage to get where we're going without destroying either you, me or the surrounding area."

"And why is that?" Hiei looked at her.

Aniya squared her shoulders. "I don't have much control over my spirit energy. To tele-port would mean to use my spirit energy. Since I've already blown up something today with my spirit energy, I wouldn't suggest trying to do something else. I don't know any magic spells that would work either.

Kurama sighed. This complicated things just a little bit. "Fine, hold onto me and I'll bring you when I teleport."

"Kurama are you mad? You might not be able to reach a finalized destination if you take her along."

"Well, Hiei. Do you have an alternative solution?"

"I say we both take her. That way neither one of us loses so much energy that we can't focus on where we're going." Facing the wall he crossed his arms, "I can't say that I'm happy with the arrangement, but it's the only thing and we don't have much time."

Aniya crossed her arms. "Fine. Let's go."

"Suichi? Can you come down for a minute?"

"Yes mother." Turning to the two of them he said, "Come down in a minute when I call. I have to think of an excuse as to how Hiei got into the house without using a door and I also have to explain why we're 'walking' to the dinner party. I'll either come and get you or call." Then he shut the door behind him.

"Something's up."

"Really idiot? I hadn't noticed," said Aniya sarcastically.

"No, really. Kurama isn't one to call. He also doesn't normally go out of his way to explain strange occurrences to his mother. I suspect something is going to happen."

Hiei closed his eyes and his jagan eye glowed. "He says to come down now." Opening the door, he pushed it back and made his way downstairs. Aniya took one last look at the sofa and headed off right behind him. When they got down, they both noticed that Kurama was no where in sight.

Aniya sensed life energy and pointed to the living room door. "He's in there."

"I know that."

Hiei pushed open the door and Aniya followed when they were momentarily blinded by a flash of light. Blinking, they saw that Kurama was holding up a camera, taking pictures. Aniya shot forward. "Give me that camera!" Kurama easily moved the camera out of reach. She started to pull at it with her telekinetic powers, but Kurama shook his head, and looked toward his mother. She hadn't noticed, but Aniya got the message: don't do anything unnatural here, she doesn't know about spirit world and demons. Aniya turned to Hiei.

'Help me get the camera.'

'Why should I?' He was standing in a corner. 'It doesn't matter. It's just a stupid picture.'

Aniya fumed. 'Just a picture? Do you want everyone to see you wearing a tuxedo?'

'No one will. I plan to keep out of sight at the ball.'

'Wearing a tuxedo with a stupid expression on your face, with me right behind you? Do you want Yusuke to see that? Or Kuwabara?'

Horror spread over Hiei's face as he thought of what the baka would do if he saw a picture of Hiei in a tuxedo with the most stupid expression imaginable on his face. 'Fine. On the count of three, reach for the camera. I'll take care of the rest.'

'Okay, fire-boy.'

'One…two…three!' Aniya lunged for the camera and Kurama, once again held the camera out of her reach. Hiei easily nabbed the camera from his hand and gave it to Aniya. "Do what you must to get rid of the picture."

After a quick survey, Aniya found out that the camera was digital. 'That makes life a lot easier.' She clicked through the pictures and erased the pictures (turns out there was more than just one) of her and Hiei. Tossing the camera back to him, she smirked. "I thought you were smart, Suichi. Clearly you underestimated us and you obviously weren't thinking when you decided that you could take pictures of us, but your actions are forgiven."

Kurama bowed. "Shall we leave?" Hiei and Aniya nodded. As they headed out the door, they looked around to make sure that there were no more cameras that could take embarrassing pictures. Kurama smiled as he kissed his mother on the cheek. "We'll be back late, so you don't have to worry about us." Shiori smiled and nodded. "Have fun, but don't get into trouble." Kurama nodded and closed the door behind him.

Shiori went back into the living room and took out the camera, and clicked through the pictures.

*****

Kuwabara and Yusuke arrived at the ball via Botan's oar. Stepping off, they looked around them. In front of the decorated palace, dark limos lined the pavement. Off to the side, there was a space where people were teleporting from everywhere. Yusuke was about to make a remark to Kuwabara, but he found that the stupid red-head was staring at a certain green-haired, red-eyed, kind, pretty, ice maiden. 

"YUUUKINAAA!!!" He ran over to her and immediately started babbling to her, while she smiled back, listening to all of his nonsense. Yusuke shook his head. There was one happy person here at least.

"Yusuke, there's Koenma! Let's go say hello!" Botan began to drag Yusuke over to the ruler of spirit world. Yusuke looked around desperately for an excuse to not have to talk to Koenma. He wasn't really in the mood to have to been seen speaking to the toddler. His eyes caught sight of a familiar face and he ran toward the person. "See you in a sec Botan. I'll be right back."

Walking up to Four-eyed Joe, Yusuke tapped him on the back. "How ya doing Joe?"

"Yusuke Urameshi? I'm doing great. How about you?" The coversation paused as Joe walked toward a limo. He opened the door and an elderly gentleman got out. 

"Pleased you could make it Joe. Keep your eyes open."

Joe nodded, but looked straight ahead, avoiding eye contact with the man. "Yes, sir."

The next person to step out of the car was a young man, who looked to be about fifteen or so. He held out a hand, and pulled a lady out of the car. Yusuke's eyes popped out of his head. Her dress had such a low neckline that there was hardly any point in her wearing the dress at all. Seeing Yusuke's gaze, she winked at him and tossed her light blonde hair. Giving him a small wave, she walked away with the young man. 

Joe poked Yusuke. "You get enough of Calisandra yet?" Blinking Yusuke looked at him. "Who's she?"

"Apparently, she's trying to get Tarukon interested in her because she wants the fortune. But, he doesn't seem to have any interest in her. From what I've heard, he's only got his eyes on some girl that he met a long time ago, but he can't seem to find her."

"Tragic. Hey, where's Gantoi. I thought he'd be here."

"He is. He's in the garden posing as a statue. It's been his personal goal: be mistaken as a statue in a garden at a fancy social event. The guy may be smart, but he's a little weird."

"Aren't we all."

"Good point." 

Yusuke looked around again and saw a very large light appearing in the teleportation area. The large light became a small figure, flanked by another small one and a larger one. Yusuke recognized two of them immediately. "Kurama! Hiei! Over here!" In the seconds that it took them to get over there, Hiei had managed to disappear. 

Joe was looking at the pretty young lady on Kurama's arm. "Aniya, is that you?"

*****

As they made their way over to Yusuke and Joe, Hiei disappeared into the darkness. Aniya rolled her eyes and muttered, "Scaredy cat." Then she saw who they were walking towards. Suddenly, she got nervous. 'What if they think I look like a freak? What if they think I'm weak? What if they think I'm weird? What if…'

'What if they think you're insane?'

'Shut up Hiei.' None the less, her grip on Kurama's arm tightened. Kurama noticed this and looked down at her. "Aniya, try to relax and have some fun. Remember this is almost like acting magic. Make them believe you are who you really are." She smiled her thanks and tossed her head back. Kurama smiled at her and continued walking forward. 'Her ability to adapt to new situations is incredible. It's almost as if she lives a life of complete improvisation. It's astounding that she has very little control over her spirit energy. It's surprising, especially since she has such remarkable control over the magic energies, which require spirit energy in some way.'

Joe was looking at Aniya. "Aniya, is that you?"

She nodded. "Can you really not tell it's me in this fucking dress? Wow."

Joe smiled. "No, I can tell it's you. You walk like a fighter, with more controlled grace, unlike the ditsy ladies who pretend to walk gracefully."

Aniya smiled. "Thanks Joe." She looked at him in his tux. Her smiled widened. 'He looks funny enough in a tux. I wonder what the other guys look like…I wonder how on earth they managed to get a tux that fits Gantoi…' Her smiled didn't last long. Looking around Joe, she heard a familiar voice. 

"HEY JOE! Who're you talking to?" Everyone groaned. Firenzy came over and saw Aniya. "Well, hello pretty lady. What's your name? My name's Firenzy. Would you like to chat for a while? Would you like a drink? Would you like to dance?"

"Would you like my fist implanted in your head?" Firenzy, as always, missed Aniya's subtle hint for him to leave. "Save me a couple of dances okay?" He bounced away, only to latch onto some other couple. Aniya shuddered. "Imagine, having to dance with him." 

Botan ran over. "Yusuke! I thought you said you were coming right back! Koenma wants to talk to you, and oh, hello Aniya." Shock came over her face, "What did you do to your hair?" Aniya smiled. "It accidentally got messed up and I had to redo it. I'm sorry I don't quite have your skills when it comes to styling hair."

Botan looked suspiciously at her. 'Ten to one that she was fighting with Hiei.' "You weren't fighting, were you?" Shaking her head, Aniya sword that she hadn't fought with anyone, but that the hair had actually come undone itself. Sani, who had just arrived, wanted to contribute to the conversation, 'but Aniya, you…' Aniya grabbed the little dragon around the neck and gave her a death glare. Gulping, Sani continued, 'but Aniya, you…you were really upset that you couldn't wear the fan things, weren't you?'

Aniya sighed and released the dragon, letting her go back onto her shoulder. Botan shook her head, 'We really have to work on her people skills.'

'What do you mean, "have to work on my people skills"? My people skills are fine. If you want people skill problems, go look at Hiei.'

'What did you say ningen?'

'For the last time, I'm not a ningen. I'm a dracon. Say it with me: drac—on. And I said that you're people skills are worse than mine.'

'At least I don't have to cover up for stupid actions.'

'So you admit you're stupid then.'

'I said no such thing.'

Aniya turned her head and stared at a tree which was currently hiding Hiei. She glared at him as he glared back. Kurama, seeing this exchange, sighed. 'I wouldn't be surprised if Aniya and Yukina ended up as sisters after all.'

'What?!'

'Hn.'

Botan smiled at the group. "If you guys want to come this way, the early reception room is the large chamber on the left." Grabbing Yusuke and putting a grip of death on him, she pulled him away from the group. "You, Yusuke Urameshi, are coming with me to talk to Koenma." She led a protesting Yusuke away.

Kurama smiled at Aniya, "Shall we proceed?" She nodded. Kurama turned to look at the tree that Aniya had been looking at just seconds before and said, "Hiei, you should come too, especially since you're one of the telepaths that we have to use in the event of an emergency." Turning back to Aniya, he saw that her fake smile was back in place. "Just try to relax. You don't have to worry about meeting a lot of people, neither of us is that well known for fan people."

On Kurama's arm, Aniya walked toward the room where she kept telling herself, 'All I have to do is smile and nod…smile and nod…smile and nod…"

A/N: Just so you know, this is not an Aniya + Kurama or Aniya + Hiei fanfic. I plan for Aniya to be with someone, but I'm not telling who (it's kind of obvious). Everyone's going to be friends, and watch out for hidden cameras. They could be anywhere. Sofas too.


	11. Memories, Secrets, and a Curse

A/N: No, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. My most humble apologies if I neglected to state this in previous disclaimers. It was completely unintentional. 

**_Part 11: Memories, Secrets, and a Curse_**

Calisandra, three time winner of the Miss Ditz pageant, defending champion of the Biggest Blonde Idiot title, currently attending EDFFU (Extremely Dumb Fashion Freaks University), was clinging onto Tarukon's arm as if he currently owned the last arm on the face of the earth. You could practically see the money signs flashing in her eyes as she tried to make her moves on him.

"Isn't this wonderful Taru-kun?" He winced at how she addressed him, "Isn't this just the best? I love parties. There's always important people to meet, everyone is so nice and it's so much fun! I just love being popular!"

Tarukon stood there, staring at anything but the CIB on his arm (completely idiotic bitch). 'How much more of a ditz could she possibly be? And could she make it anymore obvious that the only interest she has in me is my fortune, beside the fact that she currently is 'working' for my father.' Looking around, he saw someone with interesting red hair. 'Is that who I think it is?'

"Calisandra, won't you excuse me for a minute?"

She looked worried for a moment, "Certainly Taru-kun, but only a minute." She smiled at him so sweetly that Tarukon's teeth were screaming from the agony of the cavities already. He walked toward the person with the red hair.

"Shuichi Minamino, I presume?"

*****

After the initial arrival of most of the secret security, the group scattered. Yusuke and Kuwabara, taking Botan and Yukina with them as they roamed the room. Joe had walked over to a corner, where he was standing quietly, taking in everything. Occasionally, he would go to the gardens to talk to Gantoi, but only when there weren't other people around (on the account that Gantoi was trying to pass off as a statue). Hiei has disappeared, as was naturally expected. Aniya and Kurama were left to their own devices, but Aniya didn't mind. She was having fun.

"This is nice, I don't actually have to talk to anyone I don't know, I get to walk around in the stupid dress, but there's no fighting and the only bad thing is that all the guys are looking at me. I feel like a freak show."

"Don't feel like that Aniya. The only reason they look is to admire your appearance." Kurama's smile faded as he added gravely, "But Aniya, in all serious, don't revel in their attention too much. I'm afraid that their intentions are not as honorable as they may appear."

Aniya pretended to be shocked, "Really, Kurama. Get your mind out of the gutter. I've spent my entire life surrounded by men. I think I can take care of myself. You don't have to worry." Suddenly, a young man stood in front of them.

"Shuichi Minamino, I presume?"

Kurama looked at the young man. 'Hm…gray eyes, black hair. I think I recognize him…' then the realization hit him, "Jean Pierre Cheveaux?"

The other man smiled, "Correct as always Shuichi, or should I say, Kurama?"

Kurama smiled, "I had no idea that you were here." He explained to Aniya, "Jean and I attend the same high school in the human world. He lives a double life, as he is the resident expert on strange spiritual energies. Here he is known as Tarukon. Tarukon, this is my friend, Aniya, formally known as the Black Dragon."

Aniya held out a hand as she'd been taught, but instead of shaking it, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed it. Horrified, Aniya could hardly contain her emotions. He said, "I'm very pleased to meet you Miss Aniya." She smiled and replied, "Same back at you."

Kurama and Tarukon began to talk when Aniya had a sudden feeling. 'Tarukon…that was one of the people I had to watch out for…Lord Doukai, his son Tarukon, Calisandra and who ever they were with.' Looking at the young man in front of her, she suddenly felt something else, something that was oddly memory like…

_"…my name's Tarukon…" A little boy with gray eyes and black hair smiled at her._

_…bright light…crazy men in white…trying to hurt…me… A scary man approached her with a syringe with pink liquid, laughing._

_…"TARUKON!"…Arms grabbed her from behind._

_…claws…stay with…Tarukon…no…stay with him…She tried to use her claws to stay with the boy._

_…spirit energy…scared…clip wings…Her spirit energy filled the room as they prepared to clip her wings._

_…explosions…helicopter…can't get out of the way…She was flying away from the explosions, and she saw the little boy's face in the window of a helicopter, then everything went black._

Kurama noticed Aniya's dazed look. "Aniya, are you alright?" Quickly throwing on a look, she smiled at him. "I'm fine." 'I need to talk to someone, soon.'

Tarukon looked just as concerned as Aniya tried to regain her composure. 'Does she remember? Did she have a flashback or something?'

Calisandra was getting bored. "Taru-kun, who are these delightful people you're talking to?" Tarukon turned and stared blankly at Calisandra before introducing her to Aniya and Kurama. "Calisandra, this is Kurama, and this is Aniya."

Smiling sweetly, Calisandra looked at Aniya. "I'm very please to meet you Anita." 'So this is the little bitch that Nara Ska and I have to take down. She looks like she's a mess already. This will be a piece of cake.'

Aniya slapped on a smile as sickening sweet as Calisandra, "The name's Aniya. But I'm very pleased to meet you too. Tell me, how exactly do you dye your hair?"

Calisandra's smile disappeared. "It's completely natural."

For a moment, Aniya looked confused, "I could have sworn that you were suffering from the side affects of using Dye-a-Ditz."

The other girl's face turned sour. "Well, I'd be surprised if yours is natural, _dear_."

"Well, it was nice meeting you anyway, what was it, Calisandra?"

"We should get together sometime."

Aniya muttered, "If I ever feel the need to drop my IQ". Calisandra forcefully pulled Tarukon away, but his eyes were on Aniya's. She shook her head. "Kurama, I think I may have lost a bunch of my memory."

With a worried look on his face, "Just now?"

She shook her head again, "No. I'm regaining them now. I felt like I knew this Tarukon person."

Kurama frowned. "Whatever you think, you have to remember that the dragon man you spoke of told you to watch out for Calisandra, Lord Doukai and his son."

Aniya sighed, "I know." 'Actually, he said that the son was out for more than just a little fun. He didn't exactly say that Tarukon was a bad guy…damn…why is my life so hard?'

There was a slight chiming of bells and a little man stood on a platform. "If you would be so kind as to move into the dining hall, dinner is served. The seating arrangements are posted on displays to the right and left of the doors into the room.

Kurama and Aniya made their way over to the dinner hall doors. "Aniya, can you use your senses to see if you can see where we are seated?"

She scowled at him. "I can see outlines and objects. If you ask me to identify anything smaller than a face, you're out of luck. If you wanted long distance reading vision, you should have brought Hiei along."

"We're at table nine with Yusuke, Yukina, the ferry girl, and the baka." Aniya turned around. "Who asked you?"

Hiei shrugged and made his way over to the table. Yusuke and Botan had already seated themselves. Hiei sat down next to the spirit detective. Aniya was about to sit down when Kurama stopped her.

 "It is polite for the gentlemen to seat the ladies," he did so, "before being seated themselves." 

There were two spots at the table left. Kuwabara and Yukina finally arrived and Kuwabara sat Yukina down next to Aniya because he didn't want to be stuck near either of the two midgets (of course what he didn't realize that, this being a round table, his seat was directly across from Hiei's, so the little fire demon could glare at him.)

Aniya looked at Yukina, 'So this is Hiei's sister.' Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted.

'You talk, you die.'

'You know, killing me won't erase Yukina's memory.'

He froze. 'It doesn't matter. You talk, you die.'

'Are you some broken record or something? Anyway, how would you propose to kill me? Last time I heard, you failed when you tried to kill me, the last two times.' Smiling, she looked at him and added, 'Besides, it would be a great ice breaker for me and Yukina.' 

'Don't you dare.'

'I do too dare. See if I care for all the threats you're making. They're all big and empty, like your head.'

Kurama, watching the silent conversation sighed, "Will you two please be so kind as to have verbal conversations? It grows increasingly irritating when you refuse to have regular conversations and speak telepathically."

"Sorry Kurama." Aniya smiled innocently. "I wasn't aware that telepathic conversations made you feel uneasy."

Kuwabara suddenly looked up as the waiters appeared. "OOOO! Waiters! Waiters mean menus, menus mean ordering and ordering means food!!"

Everyone except Yukina and Kuwabara sweat-dropped. 

Aniya sighed. "Kuwabara is so appalling."

Yukina giggled, "Actually, I think he's quite funny. My name is Yukina, who are you?"

"Name's Aniya. You're an ice apparition, aren't you?"

Yukina nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, what sort of demon are you?"

"Full-blood dracon." Yukina's eyes grew wide. "A dracon? But aren't they supposed to be extinct?"

"Yup. I'm just the weird one. I was actually raised on Mars by Oompa Loompas."

Yukina smiled. "You're joking, right?"

Aniya smiled back. "How could you tell?" Looking at the menu, she glanced at Yukina. "Do you have any idea as to what these actually are? I've never been in a restaurant where I needed to translate what the meals actually were. Unless you include the Chinese take-out place, but those guys are practically bilingual. There's only so much you can do to confuse fried rice and chicken."

Yukina looked at the menu as well. "I think this one is chicken…and this one is some sort of vegetarian meal. That's about it. I too, don't often have a chance to go eat at a place where the menu is in a different language."

They both smiled at each other. Aniya broke the real ice, "So, how did you and Kuwabara get together?"

"Oh, it's a long story."

"Dinners like this take a long time."

"Oh, alright…"

Kurama could see that Aniya and Yukina got along better than most sisters did. "It'll be good if they become friends. Aniya needs Yukina because of the legend and Yukina can always do with another friend." He saw Hiei glaring at them as Aniya listened to Yukina tell her story. "What is the matter Hiei? You cannot shelter her forever. Sooner or later, she will have to meet new people."

Hiei snapped, "I know that." He frowned, "It's just that baka over there says she's going to tell Yukina the truth."

"And you are not prepared to face the truth yet."

Looking sourly at Kurama, Hiei replied, "Don't make it sound like my decision is the wrong one."

"I wasn't trying to. But you will have to tell her eventually."

"Not necessarily."

Kurama smiled and shook his head. 'Hiei, will you ever learn? Yukina would be overjoyed to know you're her brother, regardless of who you are.' He watched Aniya tell Yukina one of her own stories.

"So you really…?"

Aniya smiled, "Yup. And then he did this move that was supposed to end it all, but I gained control over the attack and I won." She paused, "Okay, so I fell asleep just after he did, but I still one the fight."

Yukina was laughing, "That sounds so comical. Who was this person you were fighting?"

"Your brother."

Yukina's, Hiei's, and Kurama's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates when they heard Aniya say that. Luckily, no one else was paying attention, so they didn't notice. Yukina's huge eyes filled with hope, "You know my brother?"

Aniya shook her head, "Not personally, no. I've only ever really fought with him twice, and my mask does not provide me with the best vision."

"Oh." Yukina looked disappointed, "Do you know anything about him?"

Aniya nodded. "He's a master at the martial arts. He's really fast and well known for the attack that he used on me. He was a felon, but he's reformed himself."

"Reformed himself, how?"

"He worked with government officials on several occasions to wipe his slate clean."

"So he's good now?"

"Yup."

Yukina's eyes showed hope once again. "Imagine someone who fought to the good side. To think that my brother is someone like that!"

Hiei stared at Yukina, and then at Aniya. She stared back and said, 'Don't worry, I wouldn't tell.'

'Why not?'

Just then, the waiters came with the first course, so Aniya didn't have time to answer Hiei's question.

*****  
An hour or so later, once all the food had been removed, the same little man, who had announced dinner, stood on another platform and said, "It is time to adjourn to the dancing hall!" Many of the young couples jumped up in anticipation. Everyone else got to their feet. Kurama found Aniya, Kuwabara got Yukina and the last three trailed after them.

Tarukon watched Aniya from a distance, with our favorite IDW (Insanely Ditsy Wench) on his arm. 'She really has gotten prettier. I don't think that she's aware of how nice she really looks. I don't care if Calisandra, Nara Ska, father and the entire CEF come after me, I'm going to do my own plan, plan Tarukon: to eliminate anyone who attempts to hurt Aniya!'  With a determined look on his face, he quickened his pace to catch up so he could keep an eye on Aniya.

"Taru-kun, slow down please, I can't keep up!"

"Then you should have worn sensible shoes, so you could walk."

"Taru-kun, that is not very nice. Aren't you supposed to be considerate?"

"Only when I want to be."

"Taru-kun, you really are such a laugh?"

"Calisandra, you see this face?" He pointed at his face, "Is this face laughing?"

"Well, no, but that's the whole point of the joke, you see, Taru-kun."

My name is Taruk_on_ not Taruk_un_."

Calisandra was getting angry. 'I don't understand it. I'm gorgeous, I'm well endowed, I've money, and I've got the right sort of friends. He's getting colder and less considerate by the second.' She saw where his gaze landed. Aniya was laughing with Yukina, along with some of her other friends. 'Ah, so it's little Aniya that we're focusing all of our attention on, is it?' 

She brought her bracelet to her mouth and whispered, "Lord Doukai? We have a problem. Code T and A." She heard his reply, "Shit. Damn that boy. Calisandra, keep him as far away as her as possible. We have to find the right moment for Nara Ska to attack her. Wait for her to go to the bathroom with a group of her friends. Or just wait for her to go off on her own. Then you know what to do."

"Yes, sir." Calisandra, determined to make sure that Tarukon wasn't completely focused on Aniya, grabbed him and hauled him onto the dance floor. "Come, Tarukon, let's dance, this one is my favorite." Tarukon, so shocked that she had actually used his real first name, followed without any protestation. Calisandra smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. 'This time, there will be no mistakes. If all goes well, I'll be the new Lady Doukai with the world at my fingertips in less than a week.'

****

Aniya smiled as Yukina talked to her about ice maidens. She was very interested in Yukina's past. For the first time, she felt that life was actually going her way. 'I'm the friend of the eighth person, unless of course, it's not her. Then I'm in trouble, but it can't be bad to be friends with her anyway. She's so nice.' 

Yukina was interrupted by an argument between Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Na-uh. I'm totally better than you, Urameshi."

Yusuke laughed, "Are you joking? If relationships were track, I could run circles around you."

"Then why do I have a date and you're stuck escorting Botan?"

"…"

Aniya didn't want any more fights so she asked Yukina, "When is Kuwabara going to activate the bet?" She quickly used her senses to find Hiei so that he wouldn't miss anything. 'Pay back time.'

'Pay back for what?'

'Calling me a lamp shade.'

'Hn.'

Yusuke stopped laughing, "That's right. Kuwabara, when were you going to start telling Hiei what to do?"

"Um…now, I guess." He looked worried, 'Maybe I shouldn't have made the bet. I don't want to think of what he'll do if he doesn't like what I tell him to do.' 

Aniya started talking to Hiei again. 'The baka is going to start telling you what to do, idiot.'

'As if I'm going to do what he tells me.'

'I would if I were you.'

'What makes you say that?'

'I've just told Yukina that her brother is a bad guy gone good and he's better than he was. If you refuse to honor the bet, then what does that say about you?'

'Baka. She doesn't know I'm her brother.'

'But what happens when she finally finds out? Then what will she think of you then.'

Hiei stopped. Aniya had a point. 'Fine. I'll do what the baka says, once.'

Kuwabara was still looking worried that Hiei was going to kill him if he tried to tell him what to do. Aniya patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. He says he'll do one thing without killing you. After that, it's your own neck on the line."

He brightened up and he started talking to Yusuke and Kurama. "Think guys, what should I make him do?"

Yusuke thought, "Go around singing the song that never ends?" Kuwabara shook his head.

"How about if you make him talk to someone for a certain amount of time?" Kurama suggested. Kuwabara thought about that one, but decided, "Nope. That would be too easy. He'd find a way out of it."

Yusuke snapped his fingers, "Got it!" Kuwabara looked eager, "What?"

"You…tell him he has to ask a girl to dance." Kuwabara jumped up and down, "That sounds like a good idea!"

Aniya rolled her eyes, "So all he has to do is ask a girl to dance? Pathetic."

Kuwabara stopped jumping up and down, "No one asked you. I think it'll be funny to see shorty dance with a girl."

Aniya rolled her eyes again and sighed, "No, all you told him was to ask a girl to dance. You never specified that he had to dance with her. What if the girl said no? Did you ever think of that?" She smiled as she could hear Hiei swear in her mind. 'That's for calling me a lamp shade. I'm making sure that there's no loopholes for you to slip out of this.'

Yusuke and Kuwabara talked with one another before saying, "Aniya, will you get Hiei?" She did so. The little demon blurred over and stared at the two humans with a bored expression on his face. "What?"

Kuwabara pointed a finger at him, "Okay, shrimp. This is the one thing you have to do: Ask a girl to dance and if she says no, then you have to keep asking until you get a girl who says yes, and then you have to dance with her."

Hiei was about to refuse when he remembered what Aniya had said… _'If you refuse to honor the bet, what does that say about you?'… 'What about when she finally finds out? Then what will she think of you?' _'Fine. I'll do this one thing.' His next words were the opposite of what everyone expected him to say, "Fine. I'll do this. But I get to pick when and where." Then he blurred away.

Kuwabara nodded, not wanting to push his luck. Yukina and Aniya noticed that everyone's eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates. Yukina tapped the baka, "Kazuma-san, are you alright? Your eyes look slightly swollen." His eyes changed from dinner plates to little hearts in a record amount of time. "My eyes are fine, Yukina." He got sappy, "Even just looking at you is enough to cure anyone."

Aniya pretended to barf behind Kurama. 'Man, that guy is the very essence of stupidity.' Yukina looked at little embarrassed at what Kuwabara was saying. Botan took this opportunity to say, "Girls, why don't we head to the bathroom?" Yukina and Aniya nodded. As they left, Yusuke asked, "What is it with girls and going to the bathroom in groups?"

Kuwabara still had the hearts in his eyes and he wasn't going to going in the conversation anytime soon. Kurama answered, "Perhaps it is a cultural instinct to stay together." Yusuke shrugged and turned back to Kuwabara, slapping him, to see if that would help get him out of his stupor.

*****

Calisandra was trying to keep Tarukon occupied. Her job got a little easier when he suddenly stopped looking around for Aniya. 'Hmm, he must have finally gotten over her. I knew this was going to be easy.' What she didn't notice was, that along with her burden, her chance at notifying Nara Ska of Aniya's disappearance was flying away. She was completely ignorant of the fact that Aniya and her friends went to the bathrooms.

Suddenly, her watch started to beep. "Taru-kun, please excuse me for a minute, my cell phone is ringing." Walking away, she found a small corner to hold her bracelet up to her mouth. "What is it Lord Doukai?"

"Aniya is gone."

"So? Good for her then. There shouldn't be any problems. She was making my job harder anyway."

"Scratch that, she's back."

"Damn."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, sir. Nothing at all."

"Apparently, she just left."

"Yes, sir." Calisandra could see where this was heading….

"To go to the bathrooms."

"I see sir." …and it didn't look like the near future was going to be pretty…

"With her friends."

"Ah." …actually, the future looked down right bleak for her…

"Leaving her male friends behind."

"Oh shit."

"Oh shit is right. I'll let this one go, but Calisandra, you need to really get Aniya out on her own. Nara Ska can't approach her without any of the spirit detectives going after her. A large part of the success of this mission leans on you, and I won't tolerate failure."

"Yes sir. I understand sir. I won't let her go again sir."

"Good."

Calisandra lowered her arm, straightened her appearance and practically raced back into Tarukon's arms. "Did you miss me?"

Unknown to her, a pair of eyes opened after she left. Having heard the conversation, he was unsure as to what to do next. 'Do I warn the idiot, or do I let her figure it out on her own?'

*****

Aniya and Yukina were once again laughing at how boys could not understand why girls needed to plan bathroom trips together. Aniya smiled, but her smile didn't last long as she saw who was heading their way. "Yukina, don't look now, but Firenzy is heading this way!"

Yukina tried to see without turning around. "Firenzy? As in the Firenzy from the Arena?"

"The very same. Maybe if we walk away, he won't notice us."

"HELLO GUYS!! Isn't the party just great?!! Wow, these are some pretty ladies right here!! Hey, pretty lady with the silvery white hair! What's your name? Would you like to dance with me?!!" Firenzy almost shoved Yukina out of the way in his attempts to get closer to Aniya. Firenzy winked at her, "You haven't danced yet, I noticed. Keeping to your self until the right guy comes along right??! Well say no more!! What'ja say to us two dancing?"

Aniya, unused to this kind of attention was at a loss for words. Frantically, she looked around for an excuse. Trying to find Kurama or Yusuke, she realized that they had gone off to find some refreshments while the girls had gone to the bathroom. She and Yukina were stranded in the middle of nowhere with no one to help them out.

"Um…I'd love to dance, it's just…it's just…that…" She looked at Yukina and tried to signal that she wanted some help. Yukina didn't seem to be able to help either. She wasn't used to this kind of a guy either.

Aniya looked around helplessly. "I'd love to dance, I really would, it's just that…I…"

"She said she'd dance with me." Aniya turned with dinner-plate eyes to look at Hiei. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'

'Saving your ass, what does it look like, baka?'

'What do you mean? My ass doesn't need saving and I can save my own ass, thank you very much!'

Firenzy seemed to do a double take. "Excuse me, sir, but I think the lady was about to say that she'd love to dance with me." He went down on a bended knee just as Kurama and Yusuke came back with their punch. Yusuke's eyes grew as large as dinner plates when he saw this. Aniya sweat-dropped when Firenzy began to say, "Beautiful lady, goddess of all that is light, would you grant me this dance?"

"I said she said she's dancing with me."

Now Kurama and Yusuke had both caught the dinner plate symptoms. They looked at each other in amazement. Did Hiei really just announce that he was planning to dance with Aniya? 

Aniya was nodding her head. "Um…yeah. I said I was going to dance with him. So sorry that I can't dance with you."

Firenzy jumped back up. "That's alright! I'll ask again later, lovely creature. He can't dance with you all night." Then he scurried away to talk to someone, quite possibly Joe. Aniya sighed as he left, "He really doesn't have a clue, does he? If he knew I was the Black Dragon, he wouldn't be so anxious to dance with me."

Hiei was staring at her with his hands in his pockets again. "So is that a yes or no?"

"Huh?" Aniya was confused.

"Baka. I just asked you if you wanted to dance. Is it a yes or no?"

Now everyone in a ten foot radius who knew Hiei had caught the deadly dinner plate virus that was growing rapidly contagious. Aniya looked at him as if he was from Mars. "You have gone insane, haven't you?"

"I wish." He gave her a death glare. "If you don't want to, just say so now. Then I'll go tell that baka that you're available."

Aniya paled. "Choose between two idiots? This is so hard…fine." She folded her arms. "Don't think that this means that I'm trying to be nice to you or anything, it's just I'd rather not touch the other moron."

"Let's get this over and done with." He walked toward a remote corner of the dance floor and Aniya followed. For a moment, he seemed unsure as to what to do, but after looking at the other couples around them, they managed to settle on dancing, an arm's length apart, barely touching. (And what they were doing couldn't really be called swaying because what they were doing, compared to swaying, would be like, saying falling from a building could qualify as flying.)

They turned their heads in the opposite directions, determined not to notice the other one. 'Stupid ningen.'

Aniya looked at him and glared. "If I'm a stupid ningen, then why didn't you ask someone else?"

'Because no one else is short enough.'

She glowered and then put on a happy face. "I know you asked me because you wanted to get this done and over with. Now the baka can't tell you what to do and since I'm not available for dancing, the Firenzy guy isn't bothering me, and therefore isn't bothering you or anyone else in our group with his presence."

"For a stupid ningen, you certainly can seem smart sometimes."

"I'm not stupid. And I'm not a human."

"Hn." Then he paused for a moment. 'Why didn't you tell her?'

Aniya was confused again. "Tell who what?"

He gazed at her with a bored expression. 'Why didn't you tell Yukina?'

She looked down at her feet. 'I understand what you're going through.' Hiei looked stunned. Aniya continued, 'I feel it too. The need to protect her and keep her happy. We both have secrets that we want to keep from her so she doesn't get hurt.'

'Baka. Like you'd have a secret with her.'

'Well…I don't really want to tell you this, I doubt you really care, but…you remember the legend Koenma told you about? The one with the dragon child and everything? Well I'm the dragon child. I've found four of the seven friends that I need to make in order for me to face Sukeisa. Yukina is the last one, the eighth that is supposed to help me defeat Sukeisa.'

'How could she be the eighth one. The stupid poem said that the eighth friend would be made at the last minute. You're already friends with her.'

Aniya sighed, 'I know. Recently, the dragon man who keeps communicating with me tried to tell me that someone else might be the eighth one, but I don't see how. He showed me images, almost like a video camera view of Yukina for as long as could remember. I don't see why he would go through all of that unless she was eighth one. Maybe he meant that there would be eight friends, but only the eighth one could help me at the last minute or something. I don't know. It's really confusing.'

'Hn.'

'Even if she isn't the last one, the dragon man tried to warn me that people out for my guts could injure me enough to prevent me from winning the battle against Sukeisa. Then everyone would die and she would be hurt. If she was the eighth friend, then she could get hurt in the process of helping me to defeat Sukeisa. Either way, she could get hurt, so I want her to be safe.'

'Why? You're no relation to her. I'm her brother. I can protect her myself.'

'We all saw how well that plan worked.'

'Nani?' He asked sharply.

'Come on. What could be more painful for her than to have people being hurt because of her. She never deserved to go through something like that.'

'That's why I don't tell her. She deserves to be happy, and having a brother like me is not what I think would make her happy.'

'Idiot. She'd be happy with you no matter who you really are.'

'Hn.'

She laughed. "No wonder the others think you have difficulties in the people skills department, you're like talking to a brick wall!"  Then she remembered something. "What did you mean when you said you were saving my ass, earlier?"

He replied, 'I heard some baka talking to someone on a communicator about you. Apparently, they're after you and this blond idiot seemed to think that she had missed something when you went to the bathrooms. 

Suddenly, she felt something cold grip her heart. Freezing, she used her senses to scan the area.

"What is it baka? Scared of a little threat already?"

Aniya shook her head and continued to look. 'Hiei. Get off the floor right now. Find Yukina. Make sure she, and everyone else is fine. Something's wrong.' He gave her a look that clearly said, _Don't think I'm doing this because I'm doing what you say, I'm doing this because I feel like it. Walking back to the group, he made sure that everyone was still there. 'They're all fine baka. What are you worried about?'_

'I think Sukeisa's here.'

'What?!'

Before Aniya had a chance to explain, a figure stepped in front of her. "Aniya, if you aren't engaged, may I have this dance?"

Aniya looked up at Tarukon Doukai. 'Oh shit. If I refuse, then he'll know that I know something, and I don't want to raise any speculation here…dammit…why did he have to come along? I guess I'll have to say yes. I've gotta play my cards very carefully from here on in.'

"I'd be delighted to dance with you, sir." Tarukon took her arm and gracefully led her to a spot on the dance floor, where he proceeded to dance. Aniya stared at him thoughtfully. 'Why do I feel as if I've seen him before? He doesn't seem like a stranger, or the bad guy…'

Tarukon could feel Aniya's gaze. 'Maybe she's remembering. Maybe she'll remember who I am!' He smiled as they slowly twirled around. With a determined glint in his eye, he met his father's gaze. Needless to say, his father didn't look pleased. 'That ought to show father that he can't mess around with me.'

"Excuse me? Sir?"

"Call me Tarukon, please."

Aniya paused. "Alright, Tarukon. Have I met you before? You seem very familiar and I don't know why."

Tarukon seemed to pull in his breath. 'So she doesn't remember. I don't want to tell her straight out, but what can I do?' "I feel as if I know you two. I wonder, it might be something we ate?"

"What did you eat?"

"I think it was the chicken. The only other thing I recognized was the vegetarian meal, and I wasn't interested in that."

"Me too! I mean, I didn't want the vegetarian meal. I mean, I thought that chicken was better…." She was flustered. 'Why is this happening to me. I danced with the other baka…I've talked to men before…why has this never happened before?'

Tarukon and Aniya smiled at each other as the band played on.

*****

Lord Doukai met his son's gaze. 'What the hell does that boy think he's doing? If she remembers who he is, then our chances at succeeding are slim to none. I'll have to get Calisandra to work on this.' "Calisandra?"

"Yes, Lord Doukai?" She was hidden by the same potted plants that she had been behind when Hiei had heard her speak. "Where is Tarukon? He seems to have disappeared and I can't find him anywhere."

"He's dancing with Aniya."

Her eyes flared. "That treacherous bastard! How could he do something like that to me!" then she remembered who she was talking to. "I'm sorry my lord. No offense intended toward your son."

"No, that's alright. Right now, I was thinking the same thing. I need to you to get Nara Ska in there so she can do what she needs to do."

"What? Now? In front of all the other people?"

"Come up with a suitable distraction. Try using your spirit energy."

Calisandra smiled, "With pleasure sir." Then she walked away from the plants into the garden, where Nara Ska was hiding. "Come on. It's time for you to get your revenge. You remember what to do?"

Nara Ska nodded. Calisandra continued, "Lord Doukai seems to think that we need to get this done and other with right now. So what I'm going to do is make a distraction, by pretending to fight her or something. One of my attacks will be the concealment spell of Katomi's. That will be your cue to cast your spell on her. Also, feel free to do what you can to injure her. The more injured she is, the better our chances are of success."

Nara Ska nodded again. Calisandra wondered, 'Does she ever get tired of nodding her head?' Out loud she said, "Alright. You'll know when to attack." Nara Ska nodded.

*****

Aniya and Tarukon were still looking at each other. 'Where have I seen him before…it doesn't matter I suppose. He sure is cute though.' 'Whoa! Aniya, snap out of it. He's the enemy.' 'How can he be the enemy?' 'Very easily, you idiot!' 'But the dragon man didn't actually say he was the enemy. He just said he was out for more than just fun.' 'If that doesn't spell out enemy, then what does?' 'Oh shut up. You're just jealous.' Aniya blinked. 'I need to stop doing that. Two opinions in my mind is not a good thing.' She smiled because Tarukon was looking at her with a worried expression on his face. 

"Aniya, are you alright? You looked like you phased out for a moment there." He looked into her eyes to make sure that she was absolutely alright. 

"I'm fine." Then Tarukon looked at her, "Aniya?"

"Hmmm?"

"I need to tell you something…"

*****

Lord Doukai saw Aniya and Tarukon stop dancing. "Oh no, here he goes." Then he saw his son rub his neck. He faintly heard him say, 'I need to tell you something…' Lord Doukai nodded to Calisandra. 'My dear, it is time for you to act. If you don't act now, all our chances of success are gone.'

Calisandra nodded and signaled Nara Ska. The red-eyed demon moved into position. 'Show time.'

*****

"I need to tell you something…" Tarukon raised his hand to his neck, without knowing. For years, whenever he'd been nervous or scared, he rubbed his old scar. He found that is gave him a little confidence, if you could call it that. He smiled nervously. "Um…I…"

Aniya smiled at him. "What is it Tarukon? You don't have to be nervous. Just tell me whatever it is that's bothering you." 'Who am I fucking kidding. 'Don't be nervous.' Ha! I should take my own advice sometimes, I swear.' Then she saw it. The blue scratch mark on Tarukon's neck.

"Tarukon?"

Then she remembered…

_…Lord Doukai…tried to have me killed…or injured beyond hope of recovery…Tarukon saved me…helicopter…a little boy peering out of the window…the explosion…the hospital…I remember blowing it up, but…now I remember why…the stupid boulder…hit me…concussion…dammit…something else I can't remember…something about Sukeisa…_

Tarukon read Aniya's expressions like a book. He could see the realization, the surprise, the shock, and something between anger and sadness? "Aniya? Are you alright?"

Looking him in the eye, Aniya answered. "I remembered…you saved me…from your own father."

Wincing slightly he added, "Well, tried to save you yes, actually succeed, no."

Aniya was tracing the scar on his neck. "I gave you that, didn't I? When they tried to take me away again." They both got lost in each other's eyes and they would have gotten farther than that, except that a certain bitch interrupted.

Calisandra shoved her way in between the two of them. Putting her back to Tarukon, it looked as if she was protecting him from some horrible beast. "Stay away you bitch! Taruk-kun is mine. You can't have him."

"His name's Tarukon. Not Tarukun. And who says he's yours? If he is, then why is he moving away from you, slut!"

Calisandra suddenly began to glow. "All right. I've tried to be nice, but clearly this isn't going to work out. I demand to fight right now!"

"Bring on your worst!"

"You got it, bitch!"

*****

"What?!"

"You heard me detective. She says she thinks that Sukeisa is here."

"How could that be? I don't see any sleeping monsters with cosmic powers." 

"Moron. Do you really think that Sukeisa would be in his original form? Chances are is that he found a new one and is now hiding in a demon's body."

"Oh. Right." Kuwabara looked at Yukina. "Yukina, what's the matter? You seem distracted."

"I can't find Aniya. She isn't dancing with Hiei anymore and she's not with that other man."

Yusuke looked at Yukina. "What other man?"

"The one that she danced with after Hiei. He was tall with gray eyes and black hair. He was wearing a blue suit, I think."

"Tarukon."

Yusuke turned to Kurama. "Do you know who's she talking about, Kurama?"

The kitsune nodded. "Yes. Tarukon is the name of a human who is currently the most educated scholar on irregular spirit energies. He attends human school, but spends a lot of his free time in Makai and spirit world. His father is Lord Doukai and if Aniya's with Tarukon, then…we need to find Aniya immediately."

They turned to Hiei. "Well, you're the psychic one here. Where is she?"

"Yusuke, do you really need me to figure out where that girl is?"

The group suddenly heard:

"…I demand a fight right now!"

"Bring on your worst!"

"You got it bitch!"

Yusuke looked back at Hiei. "I guess we won't need you after all."

*****

Aniya and Calisandra circled each other, checking the status of their opponent (or trying to do this while looking pretty as the case might have been with a certain someone we know). Calisandra smiled nastily. "I know a lot about you Aniya. How you can't use your wings and claws unless you power up first. So I doubt you'll be using either in that get up." She laughed as Aniya cursed silently for her stupidity at agreeing to wear the dress. 

'I should have worn the stupid Sailor crap uniform instead. At least I could fight in it.'

Calisandra could see the frustration written on Aniya's face. "Agonizing isn't it? I also know about your stupid drama, dance and song magic. I can tell you that it won't work here. The stupid dress will prevent you from dancing. Song won't be enough to defeat me and drama would be a waste of your time."

"Why?"

"Because I took all of that stupid Katomi's power. Now I have her singing powers and I've been trained in a special kind of magic. One that's never been heard of. It tops drama by far."

Aniya was not impressed. "Really? What kind of magic is it then?"

Calisandra posed dramatically, "Teen."

Aniya sweat-dropped. "You're not serious. I've never heard of teen magic. You have got to be kidding. I think you're making this up. I know all about magic, I studied for years. There is no such thing as teen magic. I doubt anything short of top drama could bring me down. That stupid 'magic' of yours can't possibly hurt me."

"It can, and it will."

"I'd like to see you try."

Calisandra froze and then suddenly closed her eyes. "Fine." Then she brought one of her arms up and moved it quickly, making it look as she had slapped the air. Then she repeated the motion with her other hand. She shouted, "Bitch Slap!" Two beams of energy that looked like hands blasted from the air she'd slapped. (A/n: You can just see the freeze, the pose, the little words underneath that say the name of the attack.)

The two hands went toward Aniya, who didn't flinch as they slapped her in the face. Calisandra smirked, but the smirk disappeared once Aniya started laughing. "What is so funny? I just pitch slapped you!"

Aniya was laughing so she didn't hear Calisandra. "You're magic, it's just spirit energy! That is pathetic. Those didn't hurt as much as a bee sting. That was a stupid waste of good energy. That attack was no more magic than Kuwabara is smart." (In the background there was a "hey! Take that back shorty!") She continued. "I think it would be good if you dropped this right now. I'm under orders not to kill anyone. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to pull my attacks enough so that you wouldn't die."

Calisandra was fuming now. "How dare you insult me!" She leapt at her, forming "claws" with her hands. "Cat Fight Claws!!" Aniya easily dodged the attacks, saying, "Those were almost like an attack that a certain white-haired hanyu that we know, uses. He is very particular to it. Are you sure you've got the copyrights settled out? You could be fined for using something that isn't signature to you."

The bitch spun around and tried to do a martial arts kick. "Cheerleader kick!" But her dress prevented her from carrying through and she landed on her butt on the floor with everyone laughing at her. Aniya was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of her eyes. "Come on, is that the best you can do? You still haven't used any magic yet. It's all spirit energy. You should know that my magic can stop all your stupid attacks."

Calisandra started to glow pink. "You asked for it slut. Here I go: DITZY POWER!!" There was a blinding flash of light, and when it died away, Calisandra stood there in a pink and white cheerleader outfit. "Now that I'm powered up, I can finally get this under way. COLD SHOULDER!" She spun and flipped her shoulder at Aniya, who felt cold immediately, and was frozen temporarily, but she recovered and shook her body all over. 

"Okay, that's it. I'm getting tired of standing around with you prancing in something that a Sailor Scout would be ashamed to wear!" Aniya flung off her shawl. Then she proceeded to whirl away her skirt, revealing a pair of pants and boots.

Botan was angry. "Where did she get those? I told her she couldn't wear those! When did she put them on?"

Kurama smiled. Now he knew what had been taking the dracon so long to get dressed. She had had to disguise the fact that she was wearing combat gear beneath the elegant skirt. He was slightly worried. Even though it seemed as though Aniya's opponent was weak, he couldn't help but sense that there was someone else with a large amount of power in the room, someone that they had met before.

Calisandra was waiting, "What are you waiting for, bitch? Blow on the stupid scar and power up so we can fight real this time!"

Aniya shook her head, "I don't think I'll need any of my magic powers to win. My fighting skills should be enough!" With that she leapt at the dumb blonde and began to punch and kick like there was no tomorrow. Calisandra had trouble keeping Aniya from hitting her. 'Damn. If she doesn't use her dracon power soon, then we can't put the spell on her. I'm going to have to call in Nara Ska.'

As if on cue, the demon arrived. Aniya landed a punch on Calisandra's forehead and the other girl fell to the floor, whimpering. Then the dracon turned around. "Nara Ska." The red-eyed demon nodded in return and the two fighters began to circle each other.

Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara, Yukina, and Botan watched from off to the side. Yukina asked Kuwabara, "Aniya will be alright, won't she?"

"Of course she will. The stupid little shorty can't die." Kuwabara didn't like defending the dracon, but he didn't want Yukina to be super worried or anything. 

Yusuke turned to Kurama in shock. "How is it that Nara Ska is still around? Aniya said that she was tied to Katomi's life energy, so why didn't she die with Katomi?"

Kurama answered, "Well,  I don't actually know, but I think that since Calisandra says that she took some of Katomi's powers, my guess would be that she also acquired enough of Katomi's life energy to maintain Nara Ska. Aniya is going to have to play her cards very carefully, Yusuke. Otherwise, she will fall."

The group turned to watch the fight again.

*****

Aniya and Nara Ska had stopped circling and were regarding each other. Both of them knew that the battle could go either way. They also reached a silent agreement (who knows how) to not use any weapons because the fight was between them, not with the other people watching the fight. Then they rushed at each other to fight.

There were a bunch of blurs and when the two fighters landed in crouches on the other side of the smoke, the audience could see that Aniya was hurt a lot more than Nara Ska. 'Dammit, I don't know how she got to be so strong. I just don't understand. I could beat her before…why can't I now? I guess there's nothing for it, but to use my power.'

Aniya removed the black glove that covered her scar. Blowing on it and activating her energy, she glowed blue-white and then she was there, dragon wings and claws and all. Powering up for her electrical attack, Aniya noticed that Nara Ska wasn't moving. Normally, when Aniya powered up her electrical attack, the opponents reacted in some way, but Nara Ska stood frozen on the spot, watching as Aniya gathered the electricity.

Lifting her arms, Aniya threw the electrical attack at Nara Ska (which is kind of stupid because if goes against the entire 'don't hurt the audience, so don't use weapons' thing. Oh well) who narrowly dodged it. Aniya didn't like that, it made her suspicious. 'Yeah right. Like all of a sudden she's afraid of me now. What the hell??!'

Aniya powered up another electrical attack, but while her hands and mind were busy, she suddenly noticed that Nara Ska was using telekinetics to take the Astoria stone. "Oh no you don't!" Aniya threw away the attack, but just a moment too late. Nara Ska grabbed the stone and smashed it on the floor. 

Everyone froze. There was silence as Aniya stared at the stone which was supposed to be the last weapon against Sukeisa. Smoke started to rise from the shards of the stone as it slowly evaporated (can stones do that?). Nara Ska then walked over to Aniya, who found that she was tied with invisible bonds, tried to move out of the way. Nara Ska put the palms of her hands on Aniya's cheeks.

Pain erupted from every cell in Aniya's body. She couldn't help but scream as it felt as if something was being pulled out of her. 'DAAMMMIT!!!' Feeling all her spirit energy, magic energy and life energy drain out of her, she fell to her knees.

*****

Tarukon tried in vain to find out what was happening. "Aniya? Aniya! Where are you?" He couldn't see anything in the smoke. He could hear her screaming. 'Dammit. If only I'd dealt with Calisandra. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his arm, dragging him away from the smoke.

"Tarukon, we're leaving." It was Lord Doukai, dragging him away from Aniya. 'I didn't tell her yet!' Tarukon struggled against his father's arm. "Guards, deal with him."

The last thing Tarukon saw before he was knocked unconscious was Calisandra and Nara Ska coming up in front of him, both of them grinning like Cheshire cats. Calisandra smiled nastily in his face and said, "Well, Tarukon. It seems like your efforts failed. Now there is no one who can stop us…"

*****

"Hiei, Kuwabara? Can you tell what's happening?" The last thing any of them had seen was Nara Ska smash the stone against the ground. The smoke that had risen from the shards had covered Nara Ska's draining attack. Suddenly, they heard screams.

Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke looked at each other. "That's Aniya!" Kurama and Yusuke ran into the smoke, trying to find Aniya. The smoke was beginning to clear away and they found Aniya. Hiei had found her first, or they had found a girl that looked like Aniya. 

Kuwabara came over. "Guys, where's Aniya." Yusuke pointed, but Kuwabara protested, "That can't be Aniya. Aniya has white-silvery hair, not black hair."

Kurama and Yusuke looked at each other. "What does it mean? I've never heard of someone's hair turning black."

Hiei looked at Kurama and nodded. "It means, detective, that our dracon friend is human."

A/n: Very loooong, ne? I know the ending sucks, but I had to break it off somewhere. I have decided not to pair Aniya up with anyone. I originally thought I'd pair Aniya and Tarukon, but it wouldn't work later on, so I won't. Stay tuned. I will try and update as much as possible. (But I update solely for me because no one would ever dream of reading this, except for my sister and the one person who actually reviewed it.)


	12. Facing the Facts

A/N: You know the routine: I don't own any characters from Yu Yu Hakusho; I'm merely using them as my minions as I control the universe of Aniya. I am really sorry for the delay in getting this out. 

**_Part 12: Facing the Facts_**

Aniya was completely surrounded in darkness. 'Where the fuck am I? And what the hell just happened?' Looking around, she saw nothing but darkness. 'This isn't usual. Where's dragon dude? He normally has all this light around him. The last time that I was in a dream with a lot of darkness was …'

Then she suddenly remembered what happened pushing her recent worry away. 'That's right. The bitch Calisandra pushed into the dance and she challenged me. Then Nara Ska suddenly appeared. She took the stone and smashed it…then there was pain…a lot of it. I'm not dead am I? I didn't think that the stone was linked to my life source.'

"It isn't my dear."

Aniya whirled around and her eyes focused on another pair, red and glowing. "Sukeisa."

The eyes crinkled with amusement. "It's so wonderful to see that you remember my name. How did you like my little trick?"

"What little trick you bastard?"

"The one where I used Calisandra as a distraction while my accomplice Nara Ska destroyed the stone."

Aniya growled. "Okay, mother fucker, why the hell are you here? I assume you don't want to just tell me where I messed up because knowing you, you'll want to pound it into my head and rub it in my face."

She heard chuckles from the direction of the eyes. "I am so glad that we understand each other."

"Sure, whatever."

"From the beginning Aniya, we have not been on the best of terms."

Aniya rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, "Gee, I wonder why."

"I ask myself that very question," continued Sukeisa, as if she hadn't said a thing, "and I wonder at why we aren't allies."

"Well, let's see, you're a blood thirsty demon who picks on people who are weaker than you and you use your friends, if you ever had any. And then there's the problem with your social skills. The cruel leader thing may suit you, but it doesn't suit the rest of the world."

"How is that much different from your attitude?"

She glared at him, "What do you mean?"

"Some of the things you've just said to me, ask yourself about them."

Aniya opened her mouth to retort, but couldn't come up with a good comeback. 'I don't pick fights with people who are weaker than me.'

"What is the arena? You are the top fighter. Everyone else is weaker, slower, stupider or less skilled than you. How can you say that you fight equally with every fight?"

Ignoring the fact that he was reading her mind, Aniya stopped to think, 'But it's not the same thing. They ask for fights! I don't hurt innocent people. I pull my attacks on the weaker ones so they can survive!'

"So they can come back, only to be pounded by yourself into the ground again."

"Stop reading my mind! And at least I have friends! All you ever had was followers."

"But are they really your friends? Think about it my dear…Kuwabara? He's nothing more than a walking bunch of energy. No intelligence or strength, no reason for him to be a companion for you. Yusuke has some good attacks, but he is, again, way below your level. Botan is an annoyance, someone who shouldn't even exist. Genkai and Koenma are just two names and faces to you. See, you don't really think of them as your friends, because they aren't."

"That's not true! The others are my friends!"

"Hiei and you, friends? Please, you are too funny. He would kill you if you gave him enough reason to."

'He'd kill Kurama if the kitsune gave him enough reason.'

The red eyes flashed a glare at her, "Speaking of Kurama, do you really think that he's your friend? He's just looking out for himself. He doesn't think that I can win if I face you, so he's making sure that you can fight me. He's only testing you. You're a weapon to him."

"Shut up. You're nothing but lies." Aniya tried to cover her uncomfortable ness. She knew what was coming next.

"How about Yukina? She'd been horrified if she knew who you really were. A murderer, a thief, a trouble maker."

Aniya smirked. "Is that it? Is that all you can throw at me? Well, I'm sorry Mr. Bad guy but that is the poorest excuse for a threat that I've ever heard of. Yukina already knows about me and she's actually interested in what I do. Tough luck there. If I'm a weapon to Kurama, why'd he bother asking to bring me to the ball? Hiei would kill anyone if they got him mad enough. As for the baka, well he's just stupid, but he's more than a rock to me. Yusuke is a great guy to know. I may not know Genkai or Koenma yet, but just you wait."

"I won't have to."

"What do you mean?"

"In three days, the portal to the past will open and my current powers will combine with my ancient powers, making me invincible."

"Yeah, so? I'll just kick your fucking ass back to hell or where ever it was that you came from."

"Aren't you forgetting something my dear?"

"No."

"Nara Ska broke your precious stone."

"Yeah, your point is?"

"Without it you cannot win."

"Why not, and why the fuck are you helping me? You're supposed to be fighting against me, not giving me hints!"

"I would hope that you would see otherwise."

"Why?"

"I have an offer to propose to you."

"Spit it out already, I have more important things to do with my time."

"You have twenty-four hours to make a decision: join me in victory, or your so called friends in death."

"Yeah right. I'll never join you. Hell, I'll whip your ass right then and there!!"

"Without your dracon powers or your magical energy?"

"What the fuck do you mean? I've got my powers right here!"

Sukeisa's eyes closed, "You'll see. I'll send Nara Ska to you after twenty-four hours to receive your answer. You will be kept informed."

Aniya felt herself fading out. "Where are you going?"

"It seems your stupid friend Kurama has given you something that is brining you out of my grasp."

"Dammit… Come back you bastard!!"

*****

The four spirit detectives, Yukina, Botan, and Koenma were all in Kurama's room. Genkai was downstairs explaining why there were suddenly eight people in a house with an unconscious girl. "Aniya got a little too hot in the dress. We think she fainted from the heat…" They could hear the psychic telling Mrs. Minamino what was going on. 

Yukina kneeled by the bed, with her hands over Aniya, trying to bring her out of her unconscious state.  Yusuke was sitting in the swivel chair looking at the floor. Koenma and Botan were having a conversation outside about something important.  Kuwabara was just standing around, rubbing the back of his head with his hand, and looking stupid as always. Hiei looked out the window, ignoring everyone else in the room.

Kurama was sitting on the bed. 'We'll never know what really happened unless she wakes up. That plant that I gave her should be taking affect. We can only hope at this point.'

'Baka kitsune. You don't need to worry, the stupid human will be fine.'

'Hiei, she's just lost what power she used to have. Unlike demons, we don't know how this kind of deprivation of energy will affect her. Imagine if you lost your power.'

'Hn. I'd still have my speed.'

'Perhaps. Perhaps not.'

'Hn.' Hiei turned his gaze to look at Aniya. 'Stupid girl. She didn't take my warning seriously, and now she's been a complete idiot. She wasn't even smart enough to explain what she meant when she said that Sukeisa was there at the ball.'

'She said that?'

'That's what I just said.'

'But he couldn't possibly have been there. From the amount of power that Koenma says that he has, there is no way that he could have masked it.' Kurama's attention was drawn away from Sukeisa when he saw Aniya's eyes snap open.

"Ugh…headache…need aspirin…I think that's what it's called." Aniya raised her hands to her pounding temples. Suddenly, she felt the pain ebbing away and she saw Yukina's healing powers at work. "Thanks 'Kina." Then she noticed that everyone was staring at her. "What are you staring at?! Do I look like something from a museum that you can stare at?!" 

An evil voice resounded in her head, 'My dear, really. They must really be good friends to stick around with someone who has such a temper.'

"Get out of my head!"

'Remember, you have twenty-four hours. Nara Ska will come and find you. You will give me your answer then.'

"I said, get out of my head!!" The others looked at Hiei, the known telepath in the group.

"Hn. Like I'd bother talking to that baka ningen."

'Choose wisely…'

Aniya sighed. "He's gone." Her eyes flared when she recalled what Hiei had said, "And I am not a baka ningen!"

"Have you looked in the mirror recently?" Everyone glared at Hiei, who turned to stare disinterestedly out the window again. Aniya glowered in his direction. "I'm not some prissy girl who has to worry about her appearance, thank you very much."

Kurama tried to tell her in a tactful way, "What Hiei means by that is that you…"

"You're a human like me and Yusuke!" Kuwabara stood there, smiling as if he had just done something tremendously good.

Aniya looked at her hands, which were covered in gloves. Removing the gloves, she noticed that her skin was peach, not the pale white that normally colored her skin. 'My scar! The one that I use to activate my powers is gone too!' Shaking her hair, she saw the black locks fly out in front of her. 'Okay, my hair's turned black, my scars gone and I have no power. I think I am human. DAMN SUKEISA!!!!'

Hiei winced at the sudden increase in volume in Aniya's thoughts. Aniya smiled at Kuwabara, "Thank you Captain Obvious for that interesting bit of trivia."

Kuwabara backed away. 'Hurt or no, I don't like the tone that she's using. It sounds like she's going to kill someone. Hope it's not me.' 

Aniya stood up. "No matter what condition I'm in, I can still kick your ass!!" She made to run at him, but found that she was too tired and her legs didn't seem to want to support her. 

"HAHAHAHA!!! That's funny. Shorty can't even walk!" Kuwabara started laughing his head off.

Aniya looked at the ground and quivered in rage. 'Dammit Sukeisa, did you take more than just my powers? Did you take my strength as well?' Then a thought hit her, 'If I can't even fight, how am I supposed to stand up to him. I'll be too weak…' Then, for the first time in her life, since she was a little girl, she felt tears come to her eyes.

'I'm going to let everyone down. I can't fight like this and I can't get my powers back.' She tried to push the tears back. 'Fuck this shit. Why am I getting so sentimental all of a sudden?' The answer hit her, 'My friends are going to die and I can't do anything about it.' She remembered the dream that she had, where she saw every single one of her friends die while she couldn't do anything. 'Damn, the dream really is coming true.'

Kurama smelt the change in Aniya. 'Salt? Water? Is she crying?' He decided to take action. "I suggest that the rest of you go home. There is nothing more that we can do for the moment for her."

Koenma and Botan nodded and promptly disappeared after Koenma said that he'd be back to check on things in the morning. Yusuke dragged Kuwabara out because the big dufous was trying to stay with Yukina, but Yusuke wasn't quite as dense and could see that Aniya needed to be alone. 

Yukina ran over to Aniya on the floor. "Aniya? Is something wrong?" Aniya lifted her head and Yukina could see that her eyes were brimming with tears. 

"Are they gone?" Aniya whispered to Yukina. Seeing the ice apparition nod, Aniya let the tears fall. 'I'm too weak. Training and fighting for nine years, all gone to waste. I can't save Yukina; I can't save any of my friends…'

She completely failed to notice Kurama and Hiei's stares. Yukina was looking worried. "Aniya, are you alright?"

Aniya nodded, sniffing up the remainder of her tears. "I'll be fine. I'm just overtired." Inside she was thinking, 'Put on a brave face for her. I don't want her to be scared. Let her live her final days in oblivious happiness.' Hiei twitched when he heard her say that. Regaining composure, Aniya whispered, "Why am I so weak?"

Genkai walked in, "Because your body is used to having your dracon powers to help you. Now, without your dracon powers, your body needs to readjust and regain its strength."

"How long will it take to adjust to these new conditions?" Kurama asked the wizened old lady.

She shrugged. "Who knows? It depends on how well she adapts and how willing she is to accept her new condition." Genkai headed out the door. "I will be back tomorrow. Make sure nothing happens to her because no matter what shape she's in, she's still the last defense against Sukeisa." Then she walked out.

Aniya gritted her teeth. "I wish everyone would stop talking as if I'm not here!! I have fucking ears you know!"

Yukina consoled her,  "They're just worried about you Aniya-chan."

Aniya forced out a smiled. "Thanks." Noticing Yukina yawn, she asked, "Yukina! You should be getting home. It's late. Where are you staying?"

Yukina frowned slightly, "I had thought that I would just return to my home, but that was before the incident…"

"Would you like to stay here for the night?" Yukina looked at Kurama and nodded.

"I'd love to, I just don't want to be a burden to you, especially since you already have two guests."

Hiei and Aniya twitched. Aniya because she didn't want to be a guest and Hiei because his sister had just made a reference to him. Neither one of them had planned to stay any more than they had to.

"Nonsense Yukina. You can sleep on the sofa downstairs, or you and Aniya can come up with some other sleeping arrangement."

Aniya looked at Yukina, "Would you like to sleep here? You can have the bed if you want."

Yukina shook her head, waving her hands in front of her, "I couldn't possibly do that. You're hurt, you need the bed."

"Nope. How am I going to get used to this body if I pamper it? A night sleeping on the floor will do me some good."

Kurama brought his hands together, "So it's decided. I'll go get you some bedding." He left the room, glancing at Hiei and Aniya, just daring them to try killing each other while Yukina was there. Soon, Kurama returned with fresh bedding for the bed and some cushions for Aniya to sleep on.

"Is there anything else that you need?" He said, before leaving. Both girls shook their heads and Kurama nodded and before he closed the door, sent Hiei a hint, "If you need anything I will be downstairs, especially since you need your privacy and I doubt there will be anything that will attack you tonight."

"Thank you so much Kurama." The girls chorused. Aniya glared at Hiei.

"Hn." He blurred away.

Aniya turned to Yukina. "I think, however, that I might need you to unzip this stupid dress." Yukina laughed and ten minutes later, both girls were sleeping, or at least Yukina was. The other occupant of the room was lying against the cushions that had been given to her and was thinking about her predicament.

'24 hours to get enough strength to show that I'm not some baka ningen…. three days to find a way to defeat the bastard…where the hell is dragon man when you need him? I have to find a way to fight…on my own.' Suddenly, words from the dream she'd had so long ago filtered through her mind: …_your pride and your want to be alone were your faults. Now you must face the consequences of ignoring their help…_ Aniya shook her head, 'I'm not scared of some fucking dream!' Slowly getting out of bed, she collapsed silently on the floor. 'Dammit! I will not be—no, I am not weak! I must not be weak.'

Crawling over to the window that Hiei had left open, she pulled herself up to the windowsill. 'Oomph! When did I get this heavy? Or is it just my arms being weak? I might have to call 1-800-Jenny Craig.' Then she noticed the flaw in her plan, 'Shoot. There's no way to get to the ground without falling two stories…. wait…there's a tree.' The tree branch was at least seven feet away. 'I can't reach that…oh, fuck this shit!' 

Aniya jumped and barely managed to grab onto the branch. 'YES!! I made it! Oh, shit.' The branch broke with a resounding _crack!_ And Aniya fell to the next largest branch. 'Okay, that's over with.' Then she lost her grip on that branch and fell the branch closest to the ground. Unfortunately for the girl, the ground was still ten feet away.

'Come on Aniya. A normal human could do this…hell, Kuwabaka could do this.' Aniya got ready to jump down, preparing to do a summersault roll to break her landing. The summersault technique didn't work. It quickly became a smash-a-face-in-the-ground-while-looking-like-an-idiot-and-getting-extreme-pain technique. 

"Fuck! Shit! Hell! That frigging hurt!!" Aniya cursed from her current position. 

"What are you doing fool?" Aniya tugged her head away from the ground to see the other midget of the group sitting in the tree she'd just fallen from.

"What does it look like I'm doing, idiot? Isn't it obvious? I'm meeting a new friend. His name is dirt. Would you like to meet him too? That can always be arranged."

"Not at the moment. You look like you were practicing for joining Kuwabara's baka club."

Aniya glared at him as she pushed herself off the ground, "I _was_ trying to get used to this fucking human body."

"Hn. Baka ningen." Aniya started fuming.

"Just because I'm weak and I don't have any spirit energy doesn't mean that I'm some stupid human!!"

"Quiet. Do you want the entire neighborhood to wake up?"

"If it'll get rid of you, sure why the hell not?"

"Hn."

Aniya crawled over to a tree, where she used it as a post to lean on as she pulled herself up. 'I can do this…I can do this…fuck, I sound like the stupid little engine that could.'

"What did you mean when you said that you had no spirit energy? Genkai said that you did."

"Any baka could figure it out: It means I. Have. No. Spirit. Energy. The. Lady. Was. Wrong. Plain and simple."

"How can you be so sure that she was wrong? What if she was right?"

"You're asking a lot of questions for someone who never seems to talk."

"You shouldn't be talking."

"Ah, but I am. Anyway, I have spirit energy; I just have not control over it. Besides, I don't have enough to make enough of an impact anyway. I'd need my dracon powers in order to harness enough to make a difference in the battle."

"So you're weak and pathetically useless."

"Shut up."

Hiei turned away from her, "So the prophecy was false, or it raised false hopes at least."

"What part of the prophecy was false?"

"It said that if you had friends, you wouldn't fall."

"Like you care if I die."

He whirled around and blurred next to her, whipping his sword out. "I care about what happens to Yukina."

"Well, you haven't read the prophecy very carefully."

"I haven't read it at all, as if I would waste time doing something as unworthy of my time as that."

"Anyway, the prophecy says that I will be friends with eight people, but I can't defeat the bastard without all eight friends. Then one of the people will help me defeat Sukeisa."

"Don't you mean that the eighth friend will help you, baka?"

Aniya shook her head, "Nope. Dragon man never actually said the eighth person was going to be the actual one to help me."

"Your point?"

"Well, you're worried about Yukina, aren't you?"

"What did you say?!"

Aniya smiled nastily, "My, my. What brotherly devotion. Didn't you here what I said earlier? Or were you concerned about your sister that you missed the fact that dragon man was showing me pictures of Yukina when we were little."

"I thought that Koenma said that you were only fifteen years old."

"I am, but dragon man messed around with my aging process, so I'm about the same age as Yukina."

"Hn."

Her eyes grew to be little slits, "You're afraid that something's going to happen to her."

"So? What concern is that to you?"

"It's my concern if you try to stop her from helping me to kill Sukeisa."

"You'll need more than her to defeat Sukeisa in your present state."

Aniya sighed, "That's why I'm out here meeting with my friend dirt; so I can get back on my feet and in some form for fighting."

"Baka. You do realize that only the people who put the spell on you can return you to your natural form."

Shrugging it off, Aniya began to stretch out her weakened muscles, getting back into the shape that she once was.

"Man, I have got a long way to go."

A/N: I know it's not as long as the last two chapters, but as I said, I never meant for them to be that long. Part 12 was originally like three more pages, but I had to shorten it or the chapters would just keep on getting longer and longer. Alright, two requests: (my god, this is so stupid) please REVIEW! And if you don't want to review, please let me know if you're reading it or not (oh my god. I think that writing Kuwabara parts in my story have affected my IQ). 


	13. Realizations

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I've done thirteen of these (or I should have): I do not own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters or Nara Ska. I also do not own the theme to "Star Wars" or Dr. Evil from "Austin Powers" (but you should have already figured that out. There is a flashback sequence toward the end of this. In the event that the italics do not work, let me know and I will fix it. And without much further ado…

**_Part 13: Realizations_**

"Ogre!" Koenma sat at his large chair in his office, frowning. "Ogre! Where are you?" He watched Aniya slowly regain part of her strength. He began to tap his fingers on the desk in impatience.

George rushed in. "Here Koenma sir! Was there something you wanted?"

"Obviously you idiot! I need every book that we can find on dracons."

"We have books on dracons? I thought they were just one legend sir."

"Well, find out if we have any! We need to fix it!"

"Fix what, Koenma sir?"

"Aniya's problem you big blue doufus! Bring everything you can find, to me immediately."

Yes, Koenma sir." George rushed out of the room. Koenma turned to watch the screen, 'She'll be too weak to defeat Sukeisa unless we find a way to bring her power back. I hope there'll be something in one of the books that tells us how we can get her back to her old form.'

*****

Another person was watching Aniya try to regain her former strength. "This is quite amusing. Thanks to Nara Ska's excellent work with smashing the stone, there is no chance of her coming back. The prophecy cannot be fulfilled, so it is extremely interesting to see her trying to regain her powers."

"Why can't she come back?" Calisandra was standing behind Lord Doukai, peering at the screen. 

Suddenly, Lord Doukai whipped around and slapped Calisandra as hard as he could in the face. The blonde girl stumbled back, clutching her cheek, which was growing increasingly redder from the slap. Whimpering, she cowered as she saw Lord Doukai stand up and loom over her.

"What did I say to you about talking?"

Calisandra shut her eyes tight. "You said that I wasn't to talk because of what an idiot I was at the ball the other night."

"Precisely. And what makes you think that you have been released from this predicament?"

"Nothing sir."

"Good." He turned back to his chair and continued to watch as Aniya struggled to get into physical shape with Hiei make snide comments in the background. "There's no way that we could fail. She doesn't have the stone, so she can't get her power back from dragon man." Suddenly he tilted his head, "Nara Ska! Go pay a little visit to our friend. I want her to have a reminder that we are always an option—that she doesn't necessarily have to lose her life."

The red-eyed demoness walked out of the room, passing the gagged and bound form of Tarukon. 'I have to get to Aniya! She won't be able to figure out the counter curse without me! Why didn't I tell her about the truth before? Then she would have known what to do!'

*****

"Hn. You're still weak. Weaker that Kuwabara."

Aniya looked up at Hiei. "You really think so? 'Cause last time I checked, I wouldn't lose a fight if I had a light saber."

Hiei blinked, "What are you talking about?"

She rolled her eyes. "Come on, didn't you ever see Star Wars?" She started to sing the theme song, "Dumdumdum duh, DAH! Duhduhduh DAH dah, duhduhduh DAH dah, dududaduhhhhh…."

"Why would I waste my time thinking about stupid ningen things like battles fought by stars?"

Aniya sighed, "You really didn't have a child hood, did you?"

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you're a weak, idiotic human. And if you can't get stronger soon, we'll lose the battle."

"Will you stop calling me weak and stupid? I know I'm weaker in this human form, but that doesn't mean that you can call me stupid."

"It most certainly does." Hiei smirked, seeing Aniya fume in rage. Without any warning, she lashed out, nearly smacking his face. He dodged the blow, but not nearly as well as he would have liked.

"See? I can pull my weight around. A few seconds later and you would have been like Miruko after a bashing from Sango."

Hiei's face took on an expression of disgust. "I don't see the point in not calling you an idiotic human. You act more like one than either the baka or the spirit detective."

Aniya shook her head, "Shut up. I'm not like that."

"Yes you are. You're still weak. I'd be amazed if Kuwabara lost a fight to you right now."

Aniya exploded, "Did you hear me before? Just because I'm weaker than normal doesn't mean that you can say that I am."

"It most certainly— "

"Zip!"

"What was— "

"Zip it!"

Hiei was getting annoyed, "What are you do—"

"Shut it!"

Now he was angry. "What is the point in—"

"Zip!" Aniya smiled, calmed down from her bout of anger. "Haven't you seen Dr. Evil in Austin Powers? The part where he…." Seeing the blank look on Hiei's face she stopped, "never mind." She smiled evilly, and put her pinky to the corner of her mouth. "I think I will call him…mini me." Then her smile faded. "I think we've got company."

"I could have told you that," said Hiei, turning around.

They both looked at the red-eyed demon sitting in the tree. Aniya glared at her. "Nara Ska."

*****

Yukina woke up in bed. 'That's funny, I could have sworn that Aniya…it must have been a dream.' Then she looked at the pile of empty sheets on the floor. 'Maybe it wasn't a dream.' She quickly got of bed and hurried over to the window. Aniya was nowhere in the backyard. Yukina left her room and bumped into Kurama in the hallway.

"Yukina. You're worried about her too. Hiei's gone as well."

"Is she safe?"

Kurama shrugged, "With Hiei? I cannot tell. But I have a feeling that she'll be alright."

Yukina nodded, but didn't look entirely convinced that her new best friend was completely safe. Kurama noticed this and added, "I was going to out to check on her anyway. Will you be alright here?" Seeing the ice maiden nod, Kurama left his house, leaving some plants behind that would make sure that Yukina would be safe.

'I hope Aniya will be alright…'

*****

Nara Ska watched as Aniya glared at her from the ground. "What the fuck are you doing here, bitch?"

"You have fifteen hours, twenty three minutes and four seconds left." Nara Ska whispered before fading into the darkness.

Aniya froze. 'Great! Now Sukeisa's going to send her as a little stopwatch?! I cannot believe this!'

Hiei smirked, "Well, perhaps you might want to."

Aniya huffed and started to stamp out of the clearing when Hiei asked, "Where are you going?"

"Where does it look like I'm going? I'm going back to Kurama's house!"

Hiei glanced at some darkness between some trees, "Speaking of which."

Kurama stepped out. "I heard there was trouble."

Aniya smiled, "No, there's no trouble at all, Sukeisa's only taken away my powers,  I'm constantly being followed by people who think that I can't take care of myself in a fix and I now have a living timer until the point where I have to meet with Sukeisa!" Her expression had gone from happy to murderous faster than the speed of light. She practically blazed a trail of flames as she stomped out of the clearing.

'Right. So if the curse happened nine hours ago at 8:00, then it must be 5:00 in the morning right now.' She shook her head. 'If none of this had happened, I'd be getting my ass out of bed and going to the arena for the first fights of the day.' 

Kurama watched as the girl left. "There is something about this whole situation that does not seem right."

"Don't tell me that you've gotten stupider too."

Kurama raised an eyebrow. "I was just wondering how she is going to meet Sukeisa and what they could possibly have to talk about."

Hiei leaned against the tree, "If you haven't forgotten, the portal to the past will open in less than three days. Sukeisa probably wants to have a last chance to make sure she's out of the way."

"That will be a problem if she doesn't have any powers to fight with."

"You're worrying over nothing, baka no kitsune."

"Am I Hiei? Are you so sure that everything will work out?"

"Hn."

"That's what I thought."

*****

Aniya approached the Minamino house and wondered how she was going to get in. 'It'll look just a tad suspicious if I come in the front door, on account of the fact that I was supposed to be in bed all night.' Then she saw the tree that she had tried to jump down the night before. 'There, that'll should be good practice for me.'

Within minutes, she stood inside the bedroom. Making sure that Yukina was fine, she smiled, relieved that her friend was still okay. 'And after all this time, Sukeisa hasn't even thought of targeting you yet, 'Kina.' Then she heard the call of her stomach. 'Wow, I must be hungry after all that. I hope Mrs. Minamino has some food or something.'

Walking downstairs, she met Mrs. Minamino in the kitchen. "Good morning Aniya, how are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you."

Mrs. Minamino stared at Aniya. "What happened to your hair? I thought it was silver last night."

Aniya's eyes widened, 'That's right, I look like a human now, so I have to find something to explain this!' She put on a nervous smile, "Well, …you see…Botan…she brought me to the hair dressers, and…they…dyed my hair—that's it, they dyed my hair, just for last night. Normally, my hair looks like this."

"Oh, and you were wearing contacts as well?"

"Umm…yes? I mean yes. And I wasn't feeling too good about going to the ball in the first place. Normally I would never have gone to such a thing, but Kur—I mean Shuichi invited me and I couldn't turn him down," added Aniya, in hopes that this extra information with the hidden compliment to Kurama would put Mrs. Minamino on another subject.

"Oh, you poor thing. You must've been so nervous because you were so pale yesterday." Aniya nodded energetically. Then her stomach chose to growl again at that moment. "Are you hungry?"

"Very."

"Would you like something to eat? We have toast, bagels, a bunch of old cereals…." She began to bring things out of the cupboards and put them on the table.

Aniya suddenly spied something she'd only had once in her life. "You have Cinnamon Toast Crunch?!" She grabbed at the box and walked out the living room when she sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV. 'This is life as it should be; a working television, a functioning sofa and a box of the cereal with the taste that you can see.' She began munching away while watching some show on Cartoon Network.

"Alright, Inu Yasha!" The show had just started when the doorbell rang. Aniya tensed up, but in order to keep Mrs. Minamino out of the know, she didn't run to the door and stick a sword into whoever was there, because it would have looked just a _little_ suspicious.

"Oh, hello Genkai. If you're wondering about Aniya, I'm very glad to report that she is much better than she was last night."

"May I speak to her? There is something of great importance that I want to tell her."

"Certainly. She's in the living room watching television. It's the second door on the left."

"Thank you."

Aniya sat still on the sofa. 'Genkai…where have I heard that name before?' Then it hit her, 'She's one of the seven people I've got to meet. Her and Koenma. Well, I supposed now's a good of a time as any to get to know her.' She stopped thinking as the door opened and a little old lady walked in. Aniya stood up, out of politeness and held out her hand, "I'm Aniya."

"I know that."

The girl jerked back, "Okay, Mrs. Old Geezer, did you wake up on the wrong side of the rocking chair this morning?"

Genkai challenged back, "That's enough back talk from you. I have something I need to tell you, which you're not going to want to hear."

"Really? Then spit it out already."

"What did I tell you? Don't interrupt."

"You haven't actually told me not to interrupt, you just said not to back talk."

"Seems like you're ears and your brain aren't connected yet."

"Excuse me? At least I don't need a hearing aid."

"If you think that's an insult, what kind of a polite society did you grow up in? The land of the pretty pink flowers?"

"Oh, what was that? You want me to hit you so hard that you see the pretty pink flowers? I think that can be arranged."

Genkai pushed her onto the sofa and turned the television off. "Enough fooling around. I've got information that will help you fight Sukeisa."

"Let's hear it then."

"Don't interrupt. Before I begin, I want to know about this time limit thing that you have."

Aniya gaped. "How do you know about the time limit? I thought I was the only one that Sukeisa told."

Raising an eyebrow, Genkai replied, "Yes, but I also know Kurama and Hiei. They're very perceptive."

She smacked herself in the forehead, 'Of course! I was thinking about it in the forest, and…damn…Hiei's a telepath isn't he? Great going, Aniya. Well, I better tell the old hag anyway.' "So what do you want to know about the time limit?"

"When it started and how long you had at the beginning."

"It started at 8:00 last night when Nara Ska broke the stone. Sukeisa said that I had twenty-four hours to tell him whether I would join him or oppose him. I assume that if I joined him, that it would end the prophecy because I would not be opposing him anymore. And if I refused to join him, I would have another forty-eight hours to find a way to defeat him."

Genkai was thinking. "So that gives you fourteen hours to train for a preliminary battle, and sixty-two hours total to train what powers you have."

Aniya was getting frustrated, "Did you just come to review my situation, old hag, or did you have something else that you wanted to say to me?"

"Shut up, I also came to tell you how much of an idiot you've been."

"Me? An idiot? Are you sure that you weren't talking to Kuwabara?"

"No I'm sure. He's an idiot, but he's not blind to the truth."

Aniya snorted, "Sure. And Hiei is going to start working as a hired clown for six-year-old birthday parties."

Genkai waved the thought away. "If you're not an idiot, why haven't you done anything to recover your powers."

"I have. I've been out there regaining my strength." Aniya protested, "And I can't get my powers back."

"So you think that you can fight Sukeisa with your bare hands?"

"If that's what it takes, sure, why the hell not?"

"Why don't you use your spirit energy?" Genkai could see Aniya about to object, "Don't give me any of that 'I have no control over my energy crap.' You've got some of the best control of spirit energy that I've seen."

Aniya gaped (again). "I think you've got me confused with somebody else. The last time that I used my spirit energy, in pure form, was when I was a little kid. I blew up a hospital."

Genkai sat down in another chair, "Yes, well that's my point. The last time you used your spirit energy fully was before you had any training with Katomi."

"Yeah, so? I've only developed my magical spirit energy—not my regular spirit energy. And I can't use that whenever, so we have to come u p with something different to beat Sukeisa with."

"Shut up. I told you not to interrupt. What if I told you that your magical energy is just regular spirit energy?"

Aniya looked at her suspiciously. "And what if I told you that you were going insane because you were talking about things as improbable and Kuwabara getting about a fifty-five on a test?"

Genkai got mad. "Well, then I'd say that you're proving my point about you being an absolute idiot."

"What did I say about the idiot thing? I'm the smart one!"

"Well, you're sure acting dumb."

"Shut up!"

"I won't. Anyway, you've got to hear it, even if I have to use a hammer to pound it into your head."

Aniya slumped back on the sofa in defeat. "Fine. So what you're saying is that my magical spirit energy is just regular spirit energy. Right….and the moon is made of cheese."

"If you had to describe you're magical spirit energy to someone who had never heard of magical spirit energy before, what would you say to tell?"

"Since when have you gone all philosophical? Is this one of those questions where if you say the wrong thing they can tell if you're a cold-blooded murderer?"

"Shut up and answer the question."

"Fine, hag." Aniya sat back and thought about how to describe it. "I'd say it's kind of like spirit energy…but if spirit energy was yellow, I'd say that magic energy is yellow-green."

Genkai nodded, "But according to what Katomi taught you, or according to what the books told you, magical energy should feel completely different. Do you know why your magical energy is different from other magical energy?"

Aniya suddenly realized something, "How do you know this much about magical energy anyway? It's just a myth in the human world, but only those actors can use it. Nobody knows about it in the human world. And why is my magical energy so different? As you so put it."

"There's a long and a short to this story. Originally, there were several types of energy, religious, spirit and magical. But magical was by far the weakest of the three. So priests and priestesses trained with religious energy, training it to fight demonic, or evil spirit energy. Demons fought with spirit erg, as well as some humans. There were only a few people who remembered magical energy. The power of make-up also comes from magical energy. Since the humans were the only ones who had any interest in it, because practically anyone could use it, but it was only a little energy. The stupid humans forgot the secrets and later attributed the "magic" to stage magic.

"It passed out of knowledge for a long time, but Katomi had a book on it."

"You knew Katomi?"

"Not really. She was a student where I first started to train, but she didn't last beyond the first week." Genkai shook her head and remembered the day that Katomi left.

_A girl with long black hair sat in a forest reading a book feverishly. _

_"Katomi, you know that you won't find the answer there."_

_The girl whipped her head around to look at a smaller girl with pink her behind her. "No one asked you Genkai. You don't know what it's like to be the weak one." She smiled, "But this magical energy is the answer! With song, dance and drama, I can harness the same amount of power as even you!"_

_"You're a fool to think that the old powers will help you. You're too weak to even do the song magic. You could never complete the training needed to learn the magical energy."_

_"Quiet! I don't recall having asked for your opinion, you midget." She stood up. "With this book, I don't need to go to stupid training anymore!" She started to run away from the young Genkai._

_"Idiot girl…"_

"Idiot girl…" Genkai opened her eyes. "She never did get the power that she wanted."

Aniya was confused, "Then how did she fight against me? And how did she teach me how to do all those things with magical energy?"

"She had the stone, remember? It granted her the power that she wanted, but she did not have the strength to take the amount of power that it would have taken to beat you."

Aniya nodded, "That sounds alright, because I was able to overcome it. But that still doesn't explain how she could have taught me all that stuff. She didn't complete the training, so how did she teach me that stuff?"

Genkai smiled, "She taught you the basics, because that was all she wanted to teach you. Despite her actions to try and get you to stay weaker than her, you became stronger. Since you haven't had much experience or training with your spirit energy, you automatically began to incorporate your spirit energy into your magical attacks."

Suddenly, it dawned on her, "So that's why I can say that it feels kind of like spirit energy, but it's not, because it _is_ my spirit energy." Then she came up with another problem. "Then this means that I can use my spirit energy right? Just like with my magical attacks?"

Genkai shook her head. "Since you were doing a blend of energies, you could do what attacks you would normally use for just spirit energy and just for magical energy. I'm afraid that the number of the attacks that you will be able to do with just your spirit energy will be limited. But, your attacks will be stronger because they will not be hindered by your magical energy."

Aniya stood up. "So, if I can learn to use my spirit energy, then I can fight Sukeisa, right?"

"Not exactly."

"What do you mean, not exactly?!"

"Well, since you aren't in your dracon form, you won't have the power to harness enough energy to defeat him."

Aniya shrugged. "Who cares? Now, are you coming or not?"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to work on my ass-kicking skills." Then she walked out of the room. Genkai shook her head.

'We can only hope that someone finds a way to bring her back to her dracon form before the time is up because if not, we are all lost.'

A/N: Kind of long. The story is now 105 pages. Wow, this is the longest story I have ever written. Too bad I can't try to publish it or anything. Anyway. I am sorry for not being able to put this out earlier. 


	14. Family Issues

A/N: I don't own any Yu Yu Hakusho characters. (You'd think that you'd only have to write that once, not for every chapter, but oh, well. 'It's the price we artist's have to pay'.) 

**_Part 14: Family Issues_**

Koenma sat in his big chair, reading from a huge volume. "Let's see…d…d…Danish pastries…demonic artifacts diminished legends… doomed historical figures… dracons!" Finding the subject he was looking for, Koenma began to read:

"Dracons, or dragon children, are a race like no other. Originally created to help the dragons of the old world keep evil demonic powers at bay, the last war against the demon Sukeisa left all the dragons and their eggs destroyed, except for one. The silver dragon," he paused as he tried to look through the coffee stain.

"Ogre!" Within seconds, George was gasping for breath in Koenma's office. 

"Koenma sir, did you want something?"

Koenma stood up, "I want to know who was reading this book last because they spilled coffee on it!"

George cringed, "It was you Koenma, sir."

"Me?! Don't be ridiculous. As if I would read this!"

"Umm…you did…two months ago, right before that special dinner. You wanted to have Danish pastries for the desert and you wanted to make them. Unfortunately, you spilled coffee on the book as you were trying to find the recipe."

"That's it ogre! I'm going to fire you for lying to your boss!"

George sweat dropped and then came up with an idea, "Have you found anything that will help Aniya, sir?"

Koenma seemed to have come out of his shock. "Ah…yes." He settled down again, "Where was I….here. The silver dragon…Ta…" His face was contorted with concentration as he tried to make out the rest of the name. "…Ta…Taitam." He shrugged and continued, "remained, but realizing that he didn't have the power to compete with Sukeisa, merely used his power to put Sukeisa into a sleep. Then he sent his power to the future, where it was put into a reincarnation of a sort."

Koenma jumped up. "That's it! All we have to do is find this Taitam and he'll be able to fix everything! Ogre!!"

Little did Koenma know that he was completely and utterly wrong…

*****

Walking down the hall, Lord Doukai stopped outside one of the many doors in the underground complex. Opening the large metal door, he peered inside. His son sat chained to the wall. As the father entered, Tarukon stood up and struggled against his bonds.

"What do you want you bastard?"

Lord Doukai chuckled, "Now, now, my son. Is that any way to talk to your old man?" He carefully walked around inside the cell, managing to stay outside of the boundary set by Tarukon's chains. "I understand that this Aniya is of a particular interest to you, so you do understand why I keep you here."

Tarukon scowled, "You obviously don't understand. That's what will kill you in the end."

"I think you must be delusional because the last time I checked, you were in chains, Aniya was powerless and her friends have all their traps set into place."

"Traps? What do you mean?"

Lord Doukai smiled, "It's just a little thing I like to call plan b. In the event that her friends decide to fight the battle for her, I have matters of personal interest kept on hold. Every member of her team that would be a danger to me has a weakness and I have ascertained those weaknesses."

Tarukon snorted. 'Just who does he think he is? And does he really expect me to believe the father crap?'

Lord Doukai looked at his watch. "Oh, I must be going. Please, give my compliments to the rats and dust bunnies. I must check with Nara Ska to see how your little lovebird is doing." Walking out, he locked the door behind him. Tarukon sagged on the stone bench. 

'Stone bench? Since when does Lord Doukai have stone benches? Oh yeah, since he built an underground complex just for completely dominating the world.' He put his head in his hands, 'How am I going to get out? I have to get to Aniya before she tries to do something stupid, like fight the bastard.'

Leaning against the wall, he thought about what had happened to him the night that the stone was broken, right after he had danced with Aniya…

_"Owwww…my head. Is there any aspirin around?"_

_"Nope."_

_Tarukon spun around. "Who the hell are you?"_

_A bright silver light was across the room from him. (Just some random white room). "I your inner self."_

_Tarukon looked at the light disbelievingly, "So my inner self is a bunch of pretty light? That sounds plausible."_

_"I am not light. I am silver dragon."_

_"What?!"_

_The silver light began to fade and in its place stood a Chinese man with long, thin, white mustaches. "I am silver dragon."_

_"So how does that make you my inner self?"_

_The silver dragon sighed and began to explain. "Before I seal Sukeisa, I had to have plan. Using energy to put him to sleep for long time destroy my body and I realize dracon that I created would have no guide battle against Sukeisa."_

_"Right. That still doesn't explain why you're my inner self." Tarukon stood with his arms crossed._

_"I explain if you patient enough to listen." The little man continued. "I would have to find way to help dracon if trouble occur. I knew that stone would get broken, and result would be Aniya lose her power."_

_"But if you knew that, then why didn't you think of some way to counteract it?"_

_"I did. When I create her, I also create someone, that inherit my knowledge and pass it to Aniya if she need of it."_

_"Ah. So that's what I am. A message boy."_

_The silver dragon nodded, "Yes. Cannot talk to Aniya. She have no powers of dragon." _

_"So you want to fuse with me? Is that it? And will this infusion change me at all?"_

_"It not a fusion. Is like riding on a bus. I go along for ride in your head."_

_"So I'm a taxi for some old geezer who says he's supposedly the silver dragon, and I have to tell Aniya what you tell me to?"_

_"Yes. If you want her survival, you must do this."_

_Tarukon sighed. "Fine. So when do we perform this ritual?"_

_The silver dragon held up his hands. "First, I tell you something important."_

_"Okay. What is it?"_

_"You are not son of Doukai Lord."_

_Tarukon's eyes widened. "I'm not Lord Doukai's son?"_

_"Is what I said, no?" The silver dragon looked in puzzlement as Tarukon jumped up and began to dance around. _

_"You alright, Tarukon?"_

_Tarukon smiled and did a victory sign with his fingers. "This is great! Are you serious? Lord Doukai isn't my father? Alright!" Then he began to chant._

_The silver dragon put his head in his hands and then proceeded to yell, "Enough with "We will rock you" song! Is giving me a headache." Tarukon stopped chanting and sat down. "Now I tell you about history._

_"I create you so that in event that something go wrong in future, I fuse with you and can save Aniya and world. But I create you at same time as I create Aniya."_

_"How come I'm not a dracon too?"_

_"Dracon easier to find than human child. I create you and try to hide you until sixteen year ago when I awaken you from sleepy slumber thing. At same time, Lord Doukai start looking for human child."_

_"Why? The prophecy doesn't say anything about a human child."_

_"No, prophecy says that one friend will help Aniya, but Sukeisa tell Lord Doukai that human child will be most likely to help Aniya. Also, Lord Doukai look for human to be an opponent for Aniya. Human less likely to appear to be threat to her, so easier to attack."_

_"S o Lord Doukai supposedly adopts me so that I can become Aniya's arch enemy?"_

_"In way, yes. But as you see, plan didn't work out. You remember hospital incident?"_

_Tarukon nodded, "How could I forget it?"_

_"Hospital incident shows Lord Doukai that you cannot fight against Aniya. But he has no time to search for anyone else to fight."_

_"What about Nara Ska. He found her."_

_"Yes, so Sukeisa tell Lord Doukai to hire Katomi to steal stone, so that Katomi out of way and Nara Ska work for him. Clever, no?"_

_"Very clever. So what do we need to do to help Aniya?"_

_"I will fuse with you now. Then you will wake up and you must find way to get message to Aniya."_

_"What message?"_

_"I tell you when you wake up."_

_"Oh, great."_

_"Ready?"_

_"Ready."_

Tarukon stopped remembering and snapped out of his dream, partially because he was done with the flashback and partially because the little old man in his head was talking to him again.

'Tarukon!'

Tarukon rolled his eyes and answered, 'Yes? What is it now?'

'You must escape. Is time.'

He looked at the handcuffs around his arms. 'And how I am supposed to do that, oh, all mighty and powerful silver dragon?'

The silver dragon thought about this for a moment. 'Think happy thoughts?'

'How are happy thoughts supposed to get me out of these chains?'

'Wait minute. You say chains?'

'Nooo…I didn't say that at all.'

'You didn't? Oh, okay.' And the silver dragon went back to thinking.

Tarukon mentally slapped himself for agreeing to this arrangement. 'I was joking. Yes, I said chains.'

The silver dragon smiled. 'Okay. Here plan. You snap chains like sticks and then pick lock on door.'

'How am I supposed to do that? And how are you so sure that this will work?'

'Your father, I mean Doukai Lord think you too stup-od to escape. Look at chains carefully. They not very strong, no? Break them.'

Tarukon looked at the chains and suddenly, they didn't look as strong as they had done minutes ago. "Okay, here goes." He pulled his hands apart and away from the wall. Suddenly, he was free. "Wow. That worked."

'Good, now pick lock.'

Tarukon set to work and a few minutes later, he was facing an open door. 'Okay old man, now what?'

'Run like hell.'

"Just great." Tarukon looked both ways before taking a right and running down the hall. 'If I'm right, there's an emergency exit around here somewhere.' He passed many doors soon her came up to a door that looked strangely like an elevator. 

"Hmm…what would the code word be to get out of here?" Then he heard footsteps behind him. Whirling around, Tarukon put himself in a fighting stance, and held the stance even though the person was none other than Mr. Timbles the butler.

"Master Tarukon? I assume you need the word to get out?"

"Why yes. How did you know?" Then he mentally slapped himself again. 

'Stup-od question. You hated son, you not in cell, you in front of door and you not crossed door yet. What else you need to get through? Pink fluffy bunny slippers?'

'Thank you, silver dragon.' Tarukon looked at the butler again. "You aren't going to tell father are you?"

"Absolutely not sir. The password is 'Open up, you fucking door'."

Tarukon looked at the man again. "Are you sure that's the password? I mean it doesn't seem very pass-word like."

Timbles stood there and explained, "Well, as it would happen, Lord Doukai was attempting to open the door when it asked him what the password was. He misheard the machine and kicked the door, yelling the afore-mentioned words. The door opened, since he was the first person to use the door, he unwittingly assigned the password. Since then, he has not used the door, so only I and a few servants use it and know the password."

Tarukon smiled. "That's Timbles. Remind me when this is all over to hire you."

"Thank you sir." 

Tarukon turned around and yelled at the door, "Open up, you fucking door!" And the door opened smoothly. He was about to run through it when Timbles stopped him.

"Sir, if you proceed up the ladder in the second room on the right, it will lead you right up to a street in some urban neighborhood. Best of luck to you sir."

"Thanks Timbles." He ran through the door and proceeded to follow all of the butler's directions.

*****

Aniya was standing in the middle of the park by Kurama's house. There was no one around, possibly because it was ten o'clock on a Saturday morning, and no one in their right mind was going to be up and about at that ungodly hour. Aniya looked at her hands.

'According to the old hag, I should be able to use just regular spirit energy. I have to learn to separate it from my magical energy though. If I don't I'll fucking lose 'cause they'll have the advantage of both power and skills in magical power usage.' She looked at her index finger. 'I can always start by trying a spirit gun. That was an easy one for me to mimic.'

Concentrating on just the energy, trying to block out her training, she aimed at a tree and fired. There was a blast of light purple energy. 'I've never seen energy that color before, or at least, coming from me.' She watched as the tree she blasted exploded in a bunch of little shards. 

"That must mean that I've learned how to use my spirit energy without magical training or anything!" She was about to celebrate when a voice stopped her.

"Far from it girl. If you thought that just one blast would enough to cleanse you of your magical training, then you must be stupider than I thought."

Aniya turned and glared at Genkai. "Yeah? How would you know?"

"You shouldn't have been able to mimic Yusuke's attack. The only attacks, as far as any of the books say, that a dracon can do are Lighting of Pain, Death by Cut, and something called the Wave of Lizard People." 

Aniya sweat-dropped. "Who would name an attack 'Wave of the Lizard People'? Anyway, so the spirit gun attack I just use was using magical spirit energy?"

Genkai nodded. "Your energy should be a pale blue. Because magical energy is red or pink and that attack was of a purple color. My guess is that your energy had control over the majority of the attack, but the magical power was still there because it was not one of your own attacks."

"So you're saying I've only got three attacks?"

"Yes. And of course, you can always apply spirit energy to martial arts to make your kicks and punches stronger."

"Right. That doesn't sound to hard."

"And you sound like a slacker."

"I'm not a slacker."

"Now you sure look like one."

"Shut up! You're just talking to me like you'd talk to Yusuke. The whole point of that is for me to pointlessly blast you with spirit energy. Some technique!"

"But it works, doesn't it?"

"Shut up! What do you know anyways?"

"A lot more than you, idiot."

"Stop calling me names!"

"Why should I?"

Aniya raised her hands toward Genkai. "Because I told you to!" Electrical energy exploded from her hands and would have nailed Genkai right in the chest if the old lady hadn't moved out of the way in time. When the smoke had cleared (since the electrical attack hit another poor tree), Genkai was smiling.

Aniya looked at her hands and then at Genkai's smile. "What that it? My own spirit energy?"

The psychic nodded, "Yes. Now all you have to do is learn to be able to harness your own spirit energy like that every time, even without provocation." Genkai put herself in an attack position. "Hit me with everything that you've got, but this time, try the slash technique."

"You got it, Genkai!"

A/N: Not as long as some of the other ones, but it's okay. Don't worry. The YYH group will be coming back in the next chapter. I had to get this little thing in here because otherwise, there'd be a lot more talking in the finale and that's boring. (I write a lot of stories where the last scene is good guy trapped, asks why, how, who etc. and bad guy has upper hand and explains everything that hasn't been explained, bwahahaha, etc. So this time, if I do all the explaining beforehand, it won't happen later.) Sani will be back soon too. 


	15. A Dilema with Dragons

A/N: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Nara Ska. I thought it was time to bring the group back, so here is more stuff including some Kuwabara-bashing (only slightly), Tarkuon's great escape and you get to meet the silver dragon. FUNFUNFUN!!! 

I'm doing the best that I can to update, but I have a lot more play rehearsals now, so I write when I can. Please enjoy.

**_Part 15: A Dilemma with Dragons_**

"If we are all to fight against Sukeisa, we must begin to train."

"Hn. Agreed. The baka needs more help than anyone."

"I suggest that we get everyone together in the park or somewhere private so that we can train."

"Fine. I'll go back to your house and see if the baka girl is asleep."

"I will get Kuwabara and Yusuke. Meet in the park in about twenty minutes."

Hiei blurred away and Kurama smiled, 'If you wanted to check on Yukina, you only had to say so.' Then he set off toward Kuwabara's house to meet the first of two challenges of the day.

_Ding Dong!_ Kurama rang the doorbell and waited patiently on the front step. Shizeru opened the door. "What the hell do you want?"

"Is Kuwabara here? We are supposed to meet some friends in the park. Apparently, he has forgotten the arrangement."

Shizeru smiled, "That's my baby brother, always forgetting everything. I swear, he'd forget where he lives if we didn't constantly remind him. I'll go wake him up." She paused before going to Kuwabara's room, "What's your name, by the way?"

"Shuichi." She turned and went into Kuwabara's room.

Kurama waited in the hallway for about ten seconds before he heard noises that sounded like World War III. "Sis, why do I have to get up this early? It's a _Saturday_. I need to recover from the ba—I mean party I went to last night."

"It doesn't matter. Your friend says that you agreed to meet in the park. Get your lazy ass up!"

"What if I don't wanna? And who is this friend anyway?"

"He says his name's Shuichi."

"Shuichi? I don't know any Shuichi. Oh, wait, do you mean Kurama?"

Kurama rolled his eyes and mentally smacked himself in the head. 

Shizeru replied, "I don't know. Why don't you get your freaking butt out of bed and find out?" She stepped out of the room as the door slammed behind her. Within minutes, Kuwabara was out of his room and ready to go.

"Kurama? So it is you. Why didn't you say so in the first place?"

Kurama put on a strained smile, "I did. Anyway, the others are waiting."

"What others?"

Shizeru hit him in the head, "Don't you remember anything? The friends you said you'd go to the park with?"

"I never said—" he stopped when he saw the look that Kurama was giving him. "Oooohhh, yeah. Now I remember. We gotta go pick up…." He thought for a moment, "Urameshi, right? Yeah. We gotta go pick up Urameshi."

Kurama headed for the door and Kuwabara followed. They headed over to Yusuke's apartment, where Kurama found that waking up the spirit detective was much harder than waking up Kuwabara.

Ten minutes later, the three of them were walking over to the park.

"Aww, Kurama. Why'd you have to get us out of bed this early?"

"Shut up, baka. No one wants to hear you complain." The three stopped and saw Hiei on a branch of a near-by tree.

"No one asked you, shorty!!"

Yusuke groaned, "Can't you guys give it a rest for while? Some of us are still, technically asleep."

They walked forward for about five paces before the tree next to Kuwabara exploded. "AHHH!! WHAT WAS THAT?!!" Kuwabara ran and hid behind another tree.

Aniya walked toward the remains of the tree. "I think I've got that one mastered, finally. And I think that's all the attacks, isn't it?"

"Yes. You're not half as bad as I thought you'd be."

Kurama and Hiei looked at her and Aniya noticed them, "Oh, hey. What are you guys doing here?"

Still behind his tree, Kuwabara yelled, "What do you think you're doing, blowing up trees?"

Aniya grinned, "What have I been doing? Would you like to see what I've been working on?"

Kuwabara peeked out from behind his tree. He frowned and then came out. "I thought that you had silver hair…oh, wait. That's right. You're a human now, weaker than ever."

Smiling grimly, Aniya raised her hands. "I guess you're right. I don't have as much power as I did when I was a dracon, or when I used magical power. The only difference is that my spirit energy attacks are so much more damaging, now that they're fully spirit energy and not some weakened version of magical and spirit energy. I only have a limited number of attacks, but the ones that I do have suit me well."

Powering up, she started to emit little, electrical flashes from her fingers. Kuwabara started to back away, "Actually, it's okay. I don't need a demo right now."

"Come on! I just finished working on this one! Please?" She looked at him with an evil glare in her eye.

"Aniya." She turned to look at Genkai. "Remember what I said, you need to learn to deal with your emotions because if you don't, you will return to using magical energy, and that is something that we don't need right now."

"Oh, fine." She took aim at the tree that Kuwabara had been hiding behind. Kuwabara gulped and backed away from the tree that exploded. Aniya dusted off her hands and was about to start up another attack to show everyone when she noticed that Kurama had brought out his rose whip. Aniya gave him a questioning look, to which he said,

"I'd like to test your new attacks. It will also help you practice for your fight."

Aniya nodded. "Fine." She powered up her hands and legs so that she would have more powerful blows, then she ran toward Kurama, hoping to get in an attack before he had a chance to use the rose whip. Kurama flicked the whip and forced Aniya defend herself with her arms. The whip curled around her crossed arms.

'Ouch. I'm going to have to remember to wear armor when I go into battle with Sukeisa. These are going to be some pretty nasty cuts.' She twisted her hands around so that she could grab the whip. He pulled on the whip and Aniya nearly let go because the thorns were digging into her vulnerable human skin.

She tried to send an electrical wave up the length of the whip, but then remembered that organic matter, such as plants, were not good conductors for electricity. Her wasted energy shot toward the sky. She released the whip and dodged the next attack from the rose whip before it cut her into minced meat. 

'Since when did I get to be so slow?' She cursed herself for being human and set about powering for her slash attack. 

Yusuke turned to Genkai as the two continued their fight, "So what exactly were you doing?"

"It's none of your business. We were just training that's all."

"Fine old hag. Don't tell me what you were doing." He turned back to watch the fight. He noticed that Aniya, while strong in the beginning, was starting to slow down and appear tired. Genkai noticed his stares.

"She is stronger than she was originally in this state, but she is still weak. She's the best that she can be without her dracon powers."

"She can beat Sukeisa, though. Right?"

"I don't know, Yusuke."

Aniya suddenly stopped fighting. She whipped her head toward the edge of the park. Unprepared for such a suddenly lack of opposition, Kurama nearly sliced Aniya in two with his rose whip. He managed to twitch it away in time. "Aniya? What is the matter? Why have you stopped fighting?"

"It's dragon man. He's here. On earth!" With that said, she started to run toward the road, even with blood streaming out of the cuts she had.

Kuwabara muttered to himself, "Now she's gone mental."

"And you haven't?"

"Shut up shorty!" Yusuke punched Kuwabara. 

"There's no time for fighting. We have to keep up with Aniya!" Yusuke, Genkai, Kurama and Hiei began to run in the direction that Aniya had. 

Kuwabara was on the ground with little swirlies in his eyes. "Why can't we fight? Mommy…why're there liddle kiddies 'round my head?" With that, Kuwabara renewed his old acquaintance with Unconsciousness.

"Aniya!" Kurama called out to her. "Come back!"

But Aniya wasn't in the mood to listen. 'I can sense him. The dragon man, he's here! It has to be him…or at least I think it is.' Suddenly, the sense was gone. She tried to make her human ears strain a little harder to hear everything that she could, but he was gone.

The others caught up to her, as she was standing on the sidewalk, looking down at the ground, disappointment written across her face. 'I was this close to finding him. I'm sure that finding silver dragon dude is the right way to solve this problem.' 

Yusuke put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, next time you go running off like that, let us know, okay? We don't want anything to happen to you."

She shook of his hand. "I can take care of myself, idiot."

"Oh, that was cold."

Aniya turned and icy glare on Kuwabara. "Do you want to experience some serious pain, dumbass?"

Kuwabara ducked behind a tree, realized what she could do to the tree and then went to hide behind Yusuke. Realizing furthermore what she was likely to do to Yusuke, he went to hide behind Kurama. Aniya watched his antics. "Come Kuwabara, you aren't afraid of a little, weak, human girl with next to no powers, are you?"

He just shrank back in fear. Aniya sweat dropped, "I'll take that as a 'yes' then." Sighing, she continued to cross the street and head back to Kurama's house. Kurama caught up to her.

"Aniya, are you alright."

She smiled, "As much as I can be. I thought I sensed dragon man around."

Kurama frowned, "You mean the presence of the silver dragon?"

Aniya nodded. "Yup. By the way, do you have any bandages? I'd like to get this covered up before they get infected or anything."

"Sure. Either Yukina or I could help to speed the healing process too, so you aren't wounded if Sukeisa plans to fight."

"Thanks." She looked up at the sky, 'And I was so close to finding the silver dragon and actually getting some real answers around here. The closer it gets to the fulfillment of the prophecy, the more fucked up and confusing this gets.'

*****

'Come on Tarukon, near to top now!'

"Thank you, old man. I didn't really need to know that right now." Tarukon felt as if he had been climbing for ages. 'Stupid ladder. Why couldn't the stupid Doukai person just install escalators or elevators and make an escape plan easy?'

'Because is not his way of doing things.'

"I told you to shut up old man—OW!!" Tarukon had hit his head on the ceiling above the ladder. 'Great, now I'll have a great big lump on my head. What do I do now, oh, wise and trusty little man?'

'Unscrew top.'

Tarukon tried for a few seconds. "It's not working."

'Is because you twist wrong way. Lefty loosey, righty tighty.'

"Thank you, master of the home appliance advice." After a few more seconds, the pothole began to twist open. "We are on a roll."

*****

"OW!!!" 

Kuwabara jumped. 'Hmm…I'm not getting the tickle feeling, where did that come from?' Looking around, the only people that he could see were Urameshi, Kurama, the old lady, shorty and the other short one walking away from him. 'Oh, well it must have been a squirrel or something.' He started to walk across the street.

"It's not working."

This time, Kuwabara whirled around. "Who said that?" 

"Thank you, master of the home appliance advice."

Frantically searching for the source of the noise, Kuwabara looked all around him. 'Trees—blowing in the normal wind—perfectly normal. Bushes rustling—perfectly normal. Sky is blue—like normal. Metal circle opening in the middle of the street—perfectly…NOT NORMAL!!' Kuwabara started to back away from the metallic disc twisting in the middle of the road. 

"URAMESHI!!!"

Yusuke and the rest of the group turned around as they saw Kuwabara coming straight at them. "What is it Kuwabara?"

"The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming after me!!!" He cowered behind Yusuke and pointed at the street. Yusuke and the rest of the group sweat dropped.

"Kuwabara, there's nothing there." Yusuke explained patiently.

"Look at the metal thingy in the middle of the road?"

"What about it?"

"It was moving and there were voices!"

"Were they saying anything about pizza, ninja stuff or 'dudes'?"

"Uh…. no."

"Then it couldn't have been the Ninja turtles. Logical."

This seemed to calm Kuwabara down a bit. Aniya on the other hand was staring at the pothole in the middle of the road. She began to walk toward it, oblivious to the odd looks that she was getting from the group, not to mention the people that were walking on the sidewalk. 'I can feel him…. or both of them?' She looked straight down at the pothole with a puzzled look on her face. 'There should only be one…why do I suddenly sense two?'

She watched with fascination as the metal disc slowly came up, spiraling, from the ground. She heard a voice, "I said to be quiet! I've had enough of you. I wish I had never agreed to allow you into my head. You are driving me insane!"

Kneeling down, she made her vision at eye level with the gap between the pavement and the metal disc. Suddenly, a pair of gray eyes met with her dark blue ones. "Ahhh!" yelled the voice below the pavement as the metal disc fell to the ground again. "See? I knew there would be someone up there. Some help you are silver dragon."

Aniya immediately ripped off the metal cover. "Who are you? How do you know the silver drag—oh, it's you Tarukon. What the fuck are you doing underground in the middle of the street?"

He smiled at her. "Aniya! Am I glad to meet you! This guy in my head is driving me crazy!"

"You haven't answered my question: why are you in the sewer pipe-thing?"

Tarukon shifted nervously. "Well, about that. I've run away."

"Run away? From who?" Aniya was looking at him as if he'd gone mad.

"Lord Doukai."

Kurama asked, "Your father?"

"He's not my father."

Now Yusuke was getting frustrated with the young man, "What do you mean, he's not your father? Koenma told us that he was!"

Tarukon sighed, "I will explain, but will you let me get out of here? I would rather not lose my head or my fingers to oncoming traffic." Aniya helped pull him off the ladder and onto the street. Then, flinging the cover back into place, she followed the rest of the group back to Kurama's house, trailing behind with Tarukon.

"There's something different about you Tarukon. What have you done to yourself?"

"I will explain everything to everyone once we get to Kurama's house. That way, I will not have to repeat myself, and Aniya." She looked up as he said her name; "The silver dragon has a message for you."

Aniya practically mobbed Tarukon to death asking what the message was. So finally, when Tarukon could get a word in with the plethora of questions that Aniya was spouting at him, he said, "Calm down, Aniya. What he said, and I quote him on this, was to 'use dragon technique'."

She stopped in her tracks. "Use dragon technique? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Tarukon shrugged, "Your guess would be as good as mine."

Aniya spent the rest of the walk back to Kurama's house thinking about what Tarukon and the silver dragon could possibly mean. Once everyone was in the living room, and Kurama had checked to make sure that his mother wouldn't hear a word of what they were going to say, Yusuke pounded on the guy.

"Just who the hell do you think you are? You're on the bad side and you expect us to believe that you're a good guy?"

Everyone looked at Yusuke in puzzlement. HE explained, "You were the last person to talk to Aniya before the problem with stone, and you expect us to believe that you aren't responsible for the stone's breaking?"

Tarukon held out his hands in defense, "I did not break the stone, Nara Ska did."

"But she's dead."

Aniya coughed nervously, "Umm…not exactly Yusuke. Nara Ska is tied to Katomi's power and currently, Calisandra is harboring some of Katomi's power, and so she still exists."

Tarukon nodded, showing his agreement. "I'm here as a messenger from the silver dragon. He has a solution, or so he says."

Hiei's eyes became slits, "How do we know that we can trust you? You say he has a solution. What if he's merely using you to try and destroy Aniya?"

Her eyes widened as she looked at Hiei in amazement, 'Was that concern in his voice? Wow.'

'Hn. Don't think anything of it. I am merely concerned about us destroying Sukeisa.'

Aniya smirked. 'Sure.'

Genkai scowled, "Enough with this chitchat crap. Give us the message so that we can fix Aniya as soon as possible. We have less than nine hours until Sukeisa can send Nara Ska for Aniya's answer. We must be prepared to face an attack in that instant."

Kuwabara was still behind the times. "I thought you said that Lord Doukai was in charge of Calisandra, who is in charge of Nara Ska. How is Nara Ska under Sukeisa's command?"

"Isn't it obvious, baka? Lord Doukai works for Sukeisa." Hiei sneered at the human's stupidity.

"Oh." Kuwabara seemed to want to sit and think about this for a while. Everyone else turned to Tarukon so that he could tell them what the message was.

"What the silver dragon said was, and this is verbatim, 'use dragon technique'. I have no idea what he means, so don't bother asking."

Aniya was frowning, "Why didn't you ask him what it meant in the first place?" then a thought hit her, "How are you communicating with him anyway? Do you know where he is?" She leaned forward anxiously, hoping that Tarukon would provide the answer. 

Tarukon answered, "You see, I'm a reincarnation of a sort for the silver dragon. So what happens is, he's in my head right now. He talks to me and wants me to relay messages. Unfortunately, the connection sometimes doesn't happen because I try to talk to him, and he tries to talk to me, but I can't hear him very well. Right now we can hear each other fine."

"Can you ask him what the dragon technique is?" Tarukon nodded. "One moment."

'Hey, Mr. Silver Dragon—hey, do you have another name I can call you because silver dragon doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.'

'You call me Tarukon.'

'Why? That's _my_ name.'

'Is my name too. You reincarnation, no? So what better name for reincarnation than mine?'

'But that's going to be confusing. Can't you pick some other name to be called?'

'Umm…Laotsu? How 'bout that? That good?'

'That's fine. Laotsu, what did you mean about the dragon technique?'

'Is a technique that involves dragon.'

Anticipating the reactions of the others if he relayed this answer to him, Tarukon pried further. 'What do you have to do to achieve the technique?'

'You make dragon.'

'What?'  Tarukon waited for some reply, but there was none to be had. 'Hey? Laotsu? Are you there? Hello?'

Aniya was watching Tarukon's face go from questioning to annoyance to keen interest to dissatisfaction, confusion to alarm. "What's the matter Tarukon? Doesn't he know?"

Tarukon shrugged, "I don't know if he does."

Kurama was frowning, "But you said that he was inside of your mind, so why can't you communicate?"

"I have no idea. Sometimes we just can't talk and this is one of those times. It's nothing that I can do. All he said was that the dragon technique was a technique that involves dragon and that you have to make dragon. He has such bad grammar that I can't figure out if he means that you have to make a dragon or you have to make something become dragon like."

Yusuke thought, "What if he meant both?" Everyone looked at him. "I mean, what if he meant that you make a dragon in order to make something else dragon like?"

Kurama nodded, "I see. So if we were able to figure out the technique that resembles a dragon, and used it on Aniya, that it might bring Aniya back into her dracon form."

"So who knows a dragon technique?" Genkai looked at all of them. "You're a bunch of experienced fighters, one of you must have heard of something. I know that I have." Everyone except Aniya, Tarukon and Kuwabara glanced at each other with worried looks on their faces. They wanted to figure out an alternative to even suggesting it.

Kuwabara decided to be the voice of doom, "What about that darkness technique that the shrimp uses? That's a dragon."

Aniya looked at Hiei in alarm. "The dragon of the darkness flame technique? Is that what you mean?"

Kuwabara nodded. "That's the only dragon attack I can think of. So it's probably the one that we're supposed to use."

Frowning Aniya shook her head, "I'm sure there's another attack that Laotsu meant." She turned to Tarukon, "Are you sure that you can't figure out what he means, or that he absolutely can't talk to you right now?"

Tarukon paused and appeared to be thinking. He looked back down at her, "No, I am sorry. He's not there. I wish I had asked more about what he meant earlier on."

Aniya sighed. "That's okay. I'll have to figure out another way to get my power back." She started to head upstairs.

"Where are you going?"

"To ask Yukina to fix these cuts." Tarukon seemed anxious to stay with her. 

Kuwabara got up to go too. "Where do you think you're going?" Yusuke asked the big lug.

"I'm going to see Yukiiiina." Kuwabara sang as he skipped down the hall to the stairs. Tarukon, who felt uncomfortable being in a room full of people with faces as grim as those, chose to follow Kuwabara to Kurama's room where Yukina was healing Aniya.

Once the door had closed, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Genkai immediately began to discuss the situation. Or at least, Kurama and Yusuke did. Hiei stared out a window and Genkai watched.

"So Hiei's dragon of the darkness flame is the only thing that can bring Aniya back to her dracon form?"

"Apparently so. But unlike the last fight, where she was in her dracon form already, and was able to deflect his attack, she will not be able to withstand it. In her human form she cannot harness the energy to prevent it from injuring her."

Genkai held up a hand to stop the flow of the discussion. "I think you two aren't' giving Aniya enough credit. She has the skills right now to be able to defeat his technique, but it would be risk to see if she could survive using those skills in the human body."

"So, basically you're saying that she has no chance of succeeding of surviving the dragon attack either."

"I didn't say that Yusuke. I just said that there would be likely that she would die trying to return to her old body."

"Same thing."

Kurama turned to Hiei, "Hiei. What do you think about all this? After all, it will be you who deploys the attack if Aniya wants to attempt to return to her human body."

Hiei smirked and continued to look out of the window. "The baka will die because she is too weak. Last time she survived my attack by chance, when she was stronger and used her magical energies."

Yusuke looked at Genkai, "You trained her not to use her magical energy? Why? It made her attack stronger."

"But it also crippled her fighting abilities. While magical energies, when she is in her demon form, make her attacks grow stronger, actually make her attacks weaker in human form since a human body and a demon body react differently to the magical energy. The human body has to make it on its own, so it takes spirit energy to make the magical energy. The demon body uses the magical energy as a magnification for spirit energy."

Kurama nodded. "Also, if she were to use magical energy, the enemy would have a considerable chance of being able to control what attacks she could use at what time if they had appropriate songs or drama techniques. It is safer for her to fight, in either form, without magical energy because she has the advantage."

Genkai continued, "Sukeisa and Lord Doukai think that she still uses magical energy, so they will be unprepared for her when she fights with pure spirit energy."

Yusuke frowned, "She'll be able to survive if Nara Ska decides to attack in eight hours, but there's no way that she could survive a battle with Sukeisa."

"We can't afford to let her die. She is our last chance. None of us could defeat Sukeisa. We need her in her dragon form."

"But we can't get her in her dragon form without the risk of destroying her."

"Dammit…."

A/N: I know, it started off okay, but then it got boring. Don't worry! The next part is full of: Excitement! Adventure! Or Possibly Not! Anyway, I hate to stoop to these levels, but I'm going to ask that if you read it (and if you've read this far into my story, I congratulate you and thank you for suffering through this fanfic), that you please review. Reviews motivate me to get more chapters out sooner. 


	16. Fast Food and Secret Plans

A/N: Disclaimer: you would think that at this point that I wouldn't have to keep on writing these, but hey: it's the author's life for me!

Words in _italics_ are flashbacks or dreams.

'Words like this' = telepathic communication or personal thoughts.

"Words like this"=dialogue

Caution: This is a relatively long chapter, so just warning those of you who have computer time limits….

**_Part 16: Fast Food and Secret Plans_**

Lord Doukai sat in his chair, with his hands resting against his head in an apparently meditative position. "So you mean to tell me that you let Tarukon slip by you and escape?"

Calisandra fidgeted under his gaze. "Yes, Lord Doukai."

"How could you possibly let him escape? He's never been trained for anything like this. I made sure of that. You assured me that there would be no possible way for him to escape from that cell, never mind that portion of the complex."

"Well, I put a spell on the chains so that they would appear to be strong and that the door would appear to be locked with extra security."

Lord Doukai's eyes snapped open. "What do you mean that the chains appeared strong and that the door appeared to be locked? Are you implying that they were not strong and locked in actual fact?"

Calisandra winced in anticipation, "umm…yes."

He stood up, enraged, "Get gone, you stupid incompetent fool! I don't even know why I gave you a second chance!"

Calisandra fled from the room. Lord Doukai sat in his chair, this time, using his hands to massage his temples. "What have I done to deserve this? First it was the ball, then the dragon and now this! I thought I had it all figured out." Then he suddenly had an idea. "Timbles!"

The olden butler came in, "Yes, sir?" While thinking, 'What the hell do you want, you old son-of-a-bitch?'

"Get me Nara Ska."

*****

Aniya smiled as Yukina finished putting her healing powers into the scratches that Aniya had received during her fight with Kurama. "Thanks 'Kina. It feels a lot better now." She wrapped long bandages around her arms to keep the cuts from opening again while they were using Yukina's powers to heal.

"I only hope that will be enough to heal them." Yukina looked worried for a moment. "I think I could have done a better job of healing your wounds."

"Don't worry about. This is great." Aniya smiled again when she saw Yukina smile too.

"Well, I guess that's okay then."

Suddenly, the door swung open and the big idiot walked in. "Hello Yukina! How is my love today?"

Yukina giggled and Aniya rolled her eyes. "I'm fine Kazuma."

"That's great! 'Cause I was hoping that you might want to go out for some ice cream or something…" Aniya quietly grabbed her stuff out of the room and proceeded to walk out of the room, leaving Yukina to deal with Kuwabara.

"Aniya." She looked up and saw Tarukon. "I wanted to apologize for not being able to ask Laotsu about the dragon technique. I should have asked when I had the chance."

She smiled. "That's okay. I understand. If I was in your place, I'd probably have swore at him for not making more sense. Hell, I swear at people in my head who don't make sense, like Sani." Suddenly her smile was replaced with a look of dawning realization.

"What is it? Is something the matter?" Tarukon looked at Aniya urgently. 

"Sani…I've completely forgotten about her! She's out there somewhere! She can tell us the answer! She'll be able to communicate with the silver Dragon!" Aniya took off, downstairs, and out the door.

After she had passed by the room where Kurama, Yusuke, Genkai and Hiei were in, they poked their heads out. Yusuke asked, "Who was that?"

"Aniya." Kurama, Tarukon, Hiei and Genkai all looked at each other. Yusuke summed it up with an almighty "oh shit." Then they all raced out the door. Kuwabara was just coming down the stairs with Yukina and noticed all of them leaving.

"Hey guys, wait up for me!" He started running as fast as he could to catch up with the group.

Yukina stared wide-eyed at the sight of all of them running into the woods after a girl. Mrs. Minamino came from behind her.

"Your name is Yukina?"

Yukina turned around, "Yes. You are Mrs. Minamino…Ku—Shuichi's mother." The older woman smiled.

"I was wondering, would you like some tea to drink?" Yukina accepted and joined Mrs. Minamino at the kitchen table. Meanwhile…

Aniya was running through the forest. 'I can feel her. She's nearby. She'll be able to communicate with the silver dragon and tell me what the dragon technique is.' Suddenly, she stopped running and paused. 'Come on Sani, just stay in one place, then I can find you more easily.'

'Your wish is granted.' Aniya flipped her head up and saw Sani sitting on a branch. 

"Sani!" Aniya held out her arm and the little dragon settled down on it. "I missed you! Where were you?"

The rest of the group had arrived (sans Kuwabara), and were watching Aniya. 'I was here, at Kurama's house. Then I felt something horrible happen and I went to search for you. Then I couldn't find you for some reason. What happened to your hair?'

"I'm human Sani." She waited for the little dragon to react.

'Oh.'

Aniya hugged her, "I'm just glad that your back. Listen, we need you to tell us something."

'Shoot.'

"Well, Tarukon over there has another person inside his mind, named Laotsu."

'So he's a skitzo.'

Aniya shook her head, "No. Laotsu is the silver dragon and is occupying Tarukon's mind for the time being. We need to you tell us what he's saying because Tarukon can't hear him right now."

Sani flew over to Tarukon and settled on his shoulder. She seemed to pause before turning back to Aniya. Worry filled her eyes. Aniya noticed this and frowned, "What is it Sani?"

'It's Sukeisa.'

"What about Sukeisa?" The others in the group leaned in, as if that would make the news come any faster.

'He's not waiting twenty-four hours for you to give your answer. He's assuming that you're opposing him.'

"So? Damn straight. Like I'd ever join the fucking bastard."

'That's not all. He's not giving you a full two days. He's planning his attack right now.'

"What?!" Aniya looked at the dragon. "What do you mean that he's planning his attack right now?"

'If you don't leave to stop him now, then you'll never be able to stop him.'

Aniya looked puzzled, "Why?"

Sani seemed to falter for a few seconds. 'Wait…Laotsu says that Sukeisa has found a way to increase his power boost from the past. If you don't find a way to stop him getting his power boost, then you'll never be able to stop his attacks in two days.'

"So we have to go there now?"

Sani nodded. 'That's what Laotsu says.'

Aniya turned to the rest of the group. "There's a shit load of bad news guys."

Yusuke remarked, "What else is new?"

She glared at him. "Anyway, apparently the Sukeisa bastard is assuming that I'm going to fight against him and he's found some secret way to boost his energy when he gets the energy from the past, so he'll be even more powerful than we thought."

Kurama frowned slightly, "So the little dragon is telling us to go there and defeat him now, before the gate way to the past opens up?"

Aniya nodded. "Something like that. She says that the silver dragon says to go to his secret, hidden complex and destroy his means of magnifying his energy."

"So why don't we just pound the bastard to a pulp while we're there?"

Aniya looked at Sani with a shifty look in her eyes, "Yeah, Sani. Why can't we beat his face into the ground while we're there destroying his energy?"

'You can.' Aniya jerked in surprise. "Sani says we can beat his ass." 

"So where is the secret, underground place?" Kuwabara had finally caught up with the group. It was amazing that he was there and it was even more astounding that he had some idea as to what was going on and Hiei voiced this.

"It is amazing. Kuwabara actually said something that nearly resembled an intelligent comment."

"Shut up shorty! No one asked you." Then he stopped and looked at Aniya. "So where is this place anyway?"

Sani looked at Tarukon. Aniya said, "Tarukon knows how to get there." He nodded. 

"I know of a different route inside, other than the one that I came out of."

Kuwabara, receiving the optimist award for the day, started racing out of the forest. "Let's go guys!" Sani flew to his shoulder and chirped happily.

Genkai slipped behind as everyone left. "Aniya." The girl turned around and waited for the psychic. "Be careful."

Aniya looked surprised. "You're not going to be there?"

The wizened woman shook her head, "No. This fight is not my fight. It is not my place to interfere. Be cautious." Then she left, leaving behind a very confused Aniya.

'Right…' Aniya was so preoccupied with her thoughts about Genkai's strange actions, that she missed the pair of red eyes that were staring at her from a tree. 

The pair of red eyes closed. 'Master.'

'Is Sani with them?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Good. Now, do what I asked you to do.'

'Yes, sir.'

The pair of red eyes left just as Koenma and his blue ogre appeared.

"You big blue idiot! They're not here!"

"I'm sorry Koenma sir! The system said that they were right here when we left!" He sighed, "You know sir, maybe if we hadn't stopped for take-out on the way, we would have caught up to them." A moment later, he regretted saying this, particularly because there was a nasty-sized lump on his head.

"What was that for, Koenma, sir?"

"That was for being wrong. Now we have to go all the way back to spirit world to figure out where they are now!"

"Couldn't we just follow their spirit energies?"

"Are you seriously thinking that I'm going to follow your advice? You messed up before and this time, I'm doing everything—the right way!"

"If you say so, Koenma sir."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing Koenma sir."

*****

Gantoi came waddling out from the battle arena, it was the last battle of the day and the lizard demon was tired.

"I haven't fought that many battles in a while Joe. We really need to find another fighter."

Joe sat down wearily on a bench in the locker room. "I know what you mean, Gantoi. Since Aniya left, we've had to take the majority of the fights since knucklehead over there seems to think that he can take on all her old opponents. Don't get me wrong, Firenzy is a great fighter, he's just making careless mistakes."

Both demons turned to look at the unconscious form of Firenzy. They were both grateful that he was silent for the time being.

"It's a pity that Aniya can't come back and fight." Joe started to pack up his things.

"Aniya is doing what makes her happy. You should be glad that she is getting out, making new friends and keeping out of trouble. I bet she's having the time of her life right now." Gantoi said reproachfully.

"I know, I know. But it was easier on everyone if she was back." There was a scratching on the door to the locker room. "Gantoi, you hear that?"

"Yup. You want to check it out?" Joe got up and walked to the door. At first he didn't see anything, then he looked down at his feet, and saw that there was a crumpled little heap of dragon there. "Who are you?"

Sani raised a weak head. 'I'm Aniya's dragon.' Joe picked her off the ground. "Gantoi—she's says that she's—"

"Aniya's dragon. I heard. Apparently she's broadcasting telepathically to both of us." Gantoi and Joe sat down and looked at the little dragon in Joe's massive hands. Gantoi asked, "Why are you here instead of with Aniya?"

'Aniya's in trouble.'

Joe snorted and turned to his fighting partner, "Keeping out of trouble, is she Gantoi?"

"Listen to the dragon." Joe stopped snickering and turned his attention back to Sani.

'Sukeisa tried to…capture me and control me…but I got away…I can't find Aniya because she's not in dracon form.'

Both demons shot a glance at each other. "What do you mean she's not in dracon form?" Joe inquired, "Do you mean that she's in her more powerful dracon form, with the wings and everything?"

Sani shook her head, 'No. Someone broke the Astoria stone. Now she's a human.'

"A human?"

'That's why I can't find her. I can't hone in on her because she isn't giving off a dracon wave anymore.'

"You said that she's in trouble?"

'Sukeisa tricked her with a fake version of me. Right now, Aniya is convinced that she has to prevent him from using a special technique that would make him stronger when he gets the power from the past.'

"So she's walking into a trap."

'With the rest of her friends.'

Gantoi and Joe gave each other another glance. "You know what this means, Gantoi."

The lizard demon sighed. "I guess we don't get to rest quite yet."

They looked at Sani. "So, how do we get to this place that they're going to?"

'I think I can remember the way.'

"Good. Let's get going." They looked at the snoring form of Firenzy.

A moment later, the demon was left alone in the locker room.

*****

Tarukon lead the group of Aniya, Kurama, Kuwabara, Yusuke and Hiei out of the forest to a pay phone.

"A pay phone? Tarukon, are you serious?" Aniya was looking skeptical at Tarukon's directions and current location.

"Haven't you ever seen the Matrix? They use phones for that."

Aniya whirled on him, "But you will notice, dumb ass, that they use the phones to get inside a program. This is a building we're trying to infiltrate—not another dimension."

Kuwabara crossed his arms and pretended to become very interested in a near-by tree. Tarukon smiled, "Actually, Kuwabara's partially right. Each person uses the payphone to call Papa Gino's. Then they place an order for an extra-large salad with ketchup."

"Do they even sell salads at Papa Gino's? Why would they ever want to put Ketchup on them anyway? That's disgusting."

While everyone sweat-dropped, Kurama explained, "Undoubtedly, the combination of the unlikely order and individual payphone are the passwords to open some door."

Tarukon nodded. "There is no actual Papa Gino's in this vicinity. The phone number is for another county, so when you dial that number, you are actually keying in the password. The order is a verification of the password. Then, once the order is placed, the payphone's floor drops out and there's a shoot that leads to a hallway in the building."

"So each of us has to place the stupid fucking order?" Aniya received a nod in reply. "Actually, you need to do it pairs because Doukai wouldn't want unsuspecting intruders to get inside. It is highly unlikely that two people would call a pizza place outside of the county to order a salad with ketchup. It is quite possible that one person might. Having two people there at the same time is an extra security measure."

Kuwabara jumped forward. "I'll go first!" He was about to dial a number when he turned around and looked at Tarukon, "What's the number again?"

"Oh, to hell with this. Let me and Kurama go first." Yusuke pushed Kuwabara away from the phone. "Besides, dumb ass, you need a partner, remember?" He sighed. "Come on Kurama." The kitsune stood next to him and sweat-dropped as soon as Yusuke said, "What was the number again?"

"508-875-1661."

"508….875…16..61…Yo! I want an extra-large salad with ketchup…yup…." Yusuke's face showed confusion.

"What is it saying? Did I give you the wrong number?" Tarukon moved toward the phone.

"No, all it said was 'processing your ooooooooorddeeeeerrrrrrr!" A trap door had opened beneath the phone and both Kurama and Yusuke had fallen down a long, dark pipe.

Tarukon rushed over to the pipe as it began to close up. Once it was closed, he turned to the remaining three people. "We need to form pairs or otherwise we won't be able to work the password." Then he looked at saw the death glares that he was getting from Aniya and Hiei. And he also saw the clueless expression of Kuwabara. 'Shoot,' he thought, 'this isn't going to be easy.'

"Hiei, I suggest that you go with Kuwa—" Tarukon paled at the look that Hiei was giving him, "I mean, Aniya." He finished lamely. Hiei didn't look any happier at this arrangement, but merely said "Hn." In response. Then he walked over to the phone.

Five minutes, and several poundings in Kuwabara's head later, a newspaper rustled by a payphone that hung off the hook. A voice could be heard in the headpiece. "Processing your order….please hang up and try again….please hang up and try again…"

Then, a baby Koenma and a blue ogre in a brown trench coat appeared out of nowhere.

"You see Koenma sir? It isn't my fault. You yourself did the calculations this time and they aren't' here."

Koenma suddenly pounded the ogre in the head. "Stupid ogre! You distracted me! You must have made me make an erroneous calculation! This _is_ your fault!"

"Koenma sir. That is really unfair."

*****

Tarukon landed at the bottom of the shoot, and Aniya pulled him out of the way before a very loud, clumsy, stupid Kuwabara came shooting out of the pipe. "SHHHH!!!!" Kuwabara shrank back at the sheer deadening silence that the "SHHHH!!!" had created.

Yusuke and Kurama waited for Tarukon to point out a direction, which he did so. Then Yusuke gave the signal to move on.

"So kind of you to join us Aniya. It was really thoughtful of you to bring your friends along as well." Everyone whirled around to face a well-dressed, older man. "I wasn't expecting you to come back, Tarukon. So kind of you to come to your senses." 

"Lord Doukai, I see you are as much of bastard as you always are." Aniya gritted her teeth and frowned at the man in front of her. "You must be hiding where Sukeisa's technology and crap is. Tell us where he's hiding his secret technique, and I promise that we won't kick your ass---too badly."

Lord Doukai started to laugh, "You really don't understand, do you, my dear."

"Don't call me dear!"

"Well, my _dear_, I think that you will be staying here for quite some time." Aniya raised her hands as Yusuke prepared his spirit gun, Kurama took out a rose, Hiei unsheathed his Katana, Tarukon raised his fists and Kuwabara took a couple of seconds before realizing what everyone was doing and brought out his spirit sword.

"Do you think that is wise, Aniya?" Lord Doukai snapped his fingers and Calisandra and Nara Ska appeared with some unconscious figures…

"Yukina!"

"Keiko!"

'Mother….'

Lord Doukai chuckled, "Yes, it was so convenient that two of them were at Kurama's house and the other one was so close by." His chuckling ceased. "You move against me and they will die. Rest assured that your speed would not save them." He glanced at Hiei. "Even if you were fast enough," he looked at Kurama, "or cunning enough to find a way to get them away from my lovely assistants, they would dead before then. 

"For you see, we have injected a poison into them that will only affect them once I tell it to. If you resist, I will activate the poison immediately and they will die before Kurama can come up with one of his precious antidotes. I suggest that you lower your appendages and drop any tangible weapons that you have, right now."

Kurama's rose and Hiei's sword fell to the floor as Yusuke and Kuwabara extinguished their attacks. Aniya and Tarukon lowered their arms. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Lord Doukai nodded to more shadows. "Bind them and put them in the cells that I have already assigned to them."

The man strolled over to Tarukon, "For disobeying me, do not expect anything less ruthless than what these other fools are getting."

"I don't want mercy from you." Lord Doukai laughed and shoved him away to be brought to a cell.

Lord Doukai walked up to Aniya and grabbed her chin, "You see Aniya, I don't need to wait six hours for your answer and I don't need to wait another forty-eight to get my true power. I plan on keeping you here until the portal to the past is open and there is nothing that you can do to stop me. You see, the forty-eight hours thing was a complete hoax. The portal to the past will open in 10 hours, on the stroke of midnight, and you, along with your friends, will remain trapped inside my facility."

Aniya frowned and started to struggle to try and hurt Lord Doukai, but the shadowed servant was strong and Aniya did not want Lord Doukai to think that now was a good time to activate the poison. "What do you fucking mean, the forty-eight hour thing is a hoax? The portal to the past is opening in two days, not ten hours!"

"And who told you that?"

"Suke—" Aniya stopped suddenly.

"Yes. Sukeisa told you, didn't he? In that marvelous little dream scheme, which I must say was very impressive. He told you that so you would be unprepared, and here you are, caught very unaware." 

He raised an arm, which Sani landed on. "You were so willing to believe that my creation here was the real Sani." He ripped the dragon off his arm and flung it against the wall. It exploded in a burst of technology, wires, and smoke. "All mechanical. Do you really think that your dragon companion could really find you?"

He signaled to the shadow person "Take her away."

Aniya lowered her head. 'Damn him…he's one step ahead of us…and now the deadline is too close for us to do anything.' 

*****

Gantoi, Joe and Sani were carefully moving toward Lord Doukai's complex. Sani sat nervously patched on Joe's shoulder. 'Aniya, just hold on. We're coming. Don't do anything stupid!'

A/n: As you can tell, I'm getting closer to the final showdown (the real one this time). Yes, I originally intended to end the story soon after they beat Katomi, but look how far this has gone! Please review, because the more reviews I get, the more story you get. I would just like to add that I realize right now that most of my information about Hiei's dragon of the darkness flame is incorrect. When I started writing this story, I had only seen the first seven DVD's, which ends right after the Rescue Yukina. I didn't realize that my Arena has a very "Dark Tournament" atmosphere. I had only read about Hiei's attack and was going on that. So I apologize if anything isn't correct with the series. I tried to keep my story removed from changing things in the series, but this was one thing that I missed. I am also sorry for any misspellings of names or attacks. J 


	17. The Countdown Begins

A/N: Sorry I couldn't get this you guys sooner. Thank you for sticking with me here. I don't own YYH or any of the other trade-marked items mentioned in this story. I do own my characters. Please enjoy because I busted my ass to squeeze this chapter in with all my freaking schoolwork. Read and Review. There's an important note about updating at the bottom.

**_17: The Countdown Begins_**

**__**

"Chicken nuggets….yum….yes, can I have that with spinach on the side? Thank you, waitress Barbie…snort!" Firenzy woke up from his pummeling-induced sleep. "Hey Gantoi! Joe! Guess what kind of dream I had!" He jumped up and started running around. "I was the king of McDonalds and waitress Barbie was my wife and I was in complete control of the McNuggets…" For the first time in history, Firenzy stopped talking on his own free will.

"Guys?" He was met by even more silence. That frightened him. There was always some sort of notice going on, whether it was his own voice or not, but this quiet was scaring the shit out of him.

For about half a second.

"Guys! Come out wherever you are! I see what you are doing! You're playing hide-and-go-seek! Right?! Okay! This is like totally fun! What's even better is when there's no lights on!" He went and slammed the lights off. "Okay! Guys, I'm coming for you!"

Firenzy started to run around like a headless chicken, wondering where they could be hiding. Suddenly, he encountered a living obstacle.

"Ouch! Watch where you are going! You could have seriously hurt me."

"Gantoi?! Joe?! That doesn't sound like you! Hey! Aniya! Have you come back or something!! Great!! Now there are three people to play!!!"

Then something very hard hit him in the head. "HEY!! What was that for?! I mean, I thought we were playing a game here!"

The lights snapped back on and there, was a pink-robed lady with blue hair. "There's no one here, except for you. I'm here to bring you to Lord Doukai's complex so that you can help fight Sukeisa."

"OH COOL!!! I've always wanted to fight the bad guys!! I think that fighting the bad guys impresses the pretty ladies! Hey, you're a pretty lady! Does fighting the bad guys impress you?!"

"Yes, but you don't" Botan glared at him, "Come on. Get on the oar."

"Yay! We get to fly?! That is soooo cool!!" Botan sighed as he got on her oar and she started to fly off into the night sky, headed toward one of the many entrances to Lord Doukai's underground complex.

*****

Joe, Gantoi and Sani stopped running in a park near Kurama's house. 'Stop! The entrance is in the middle of the road.'

Joe and Gantoi look at the little dragon, clearly not believing what she said. "Are you sure it's in the middle of the road? That doesn't seem like a very logical place to a put an entrance to a secret, underground complex."

'Where would you put an entrance?'

"Anywhere but in the middle of the road… ahhh, I see." Joe nodded. "He puts these entrances in places that no one would think of as entrances, unless maybe you were a ninja turtle or something."

Sani nodded, 'Exactly. This is the exit that I managed to escape from. All you have to do is run in the middle of the road, unscrew the lid and there's a ladder there. There's also a button to push that will create an elevator thing if you can't climb the rungs of the ladder.'

Joe looked at Gantoi. "Are you going to be okay on the ladder, or do you need to push the button?"

Gantoi thought for a moment. "I should be okay on the ladder. I would suggest that I go down first in the event that I do lose my grip or something. I wouldn't want to injure anyone this far in the game." Then he thought of something else. "Sani? What if there are cars coming down the road when we're trying to get in?"

'Pray like hell there aren't any cars coming down the road.' 

*****

Lord Doukai paced in his security room. Watching all of the cameras, he looked at all of the captives in their cells. Kurama was sitting quietly, staring at his hands. 'Probably trying to figure some clever way to come out of this situation alive.' Hiei was standing up, looking at his right arm. 'My, he looks furious. Maybe I should remind him of something.' Doukai turned on the intercom system that was linked to Hiei's cell.

"May I remind you Hiei that if you give any attempt to use the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, I will immediately activate the poison in your sister's veins and there is no cure. She would be dead before anyone could come to her rescue. Even your speed would not save her."

Hiei glared around the room, trying to find the source of the voice. "Hn. Do whatever you want. I don't really care."

"I'm sure Hiei, I'm sure." Lord Doukai turned off the intercom and returned in his studies of the other members that were in the cells.

Yusuke, like Hiei, looked furious. But the young spirit detective was pacing around, and periodically punching walls. 'Keiko must really mean a lot to him for him to be this affected by her capture.' Looking in on Kuwabara, Lord Doukai had to laugh. Apparently, a mouse had found it's way into his cell and Kuwabara was cowering in a corner from it. Checking quickly to make sure that Tarukon was still sitting with his arms crossed, looking straight at the camera, Lord Doukai moved on to look at Aniya.

She was sitting in her cell looking downcast. Lord Doukai chuckled. 'That's what I want to see, Aniya my dear. Absolute submission and realization that you can't do anything to prevent what is about to happen.' He turned around to see Keiko, Shiori and Yukina tied unconscious to chairs. "Nara Ska! Calisandra!"

The two women appeared. "Nara Ska, when I send for you, I want you to come to me. But it will not be likely that I will need you. I want you to maintain security." He turned to Calisandra. "And you, stupid bitch. The only reason why I keep you here because you control Nara Ska's lifeline because you stole some of Katomi's power. You are to watch over the hostages. Don't get in Nara Ska's way, don't touch any of the control panels and don't even think about leaving or disobeying my orders."

The blonde girl just nodded and backed away as quickly as possible. Lord Doukai glared at her for a moment more, as if to make sure that the words would be implanted in her brain. Then he looked at Nara Ska. "You know where I will be and you know the signal for if I need you."

She nodded and then watched as he left the room. Nara Ska looked at Calisandra and said in a whisper-like voice, "I am going patrolling. Watch the cameras. If anything happens, tell me and I will call Lord Doukai. Do not do anything else, beside watching the hostages." Then she left to search the hallways.

Calisandra sneered after her. "Don't do anything but watch the cameras and the hostages," she said, mockingly.

Sniffing disdainfully, she plopped herself into Lord Doukai's chair by the cameras. She could see Nara Ska walking down the hall toward the cells that contained the prisoners. Flicking to another camera, she could see Lord Doukai entering a chamber through a pair of doors. Intrigued, she leaned forward and tried to read the words that were on the doors. "P…o…r…por…ta….porta…porta…I? Portai? Portat? Portaf?" She trailed off, trying to figure out the last letter of the word.

She was so intrigued that she completely missed the two figures that had just left a room that Tarukon had used to escape, hours earlier….

*****

"Oh man, this is the best thing ever! I mean I can see all the little people down there! HI PEOPLE!! I wonder if they can hear me! CAN YOU HEAR ME DOWN THERE??!!" Firenzy was holding onto Botan's waist the ferry girl was finding the entrance location that Koenma had giver her. 'Come on, it should be around here somewhere. Then I can get rid of this nutcase.' Looking around, she spotted the pay phone that the others had used earlier that afternoon to get into Lord Doukai's secret underground complex.

"Okay, we're here." She said as she landed and practically hurled the annoying demon off her oar. "Now listen carefully. You need to call Papa Ginos and then you place an order for a large salad with ketchup. Understand?"

"Absolutely! This is so much fun!!" Firenzy walked over to the phone. "Hello?! Dominoes?! Can I have an extra large…sub with mustard on the side??!" Botan snapped her fingers and her oar disappeared as she huffed and grabbed the payphone. 

"No. I said Papa Ginos, a salad with ketchup. Not Dominoes, a sub and mustard!" She quickly placed the correct order.

"Why, what would happen if we did something eeeeellllllllllllllllsssssssssse??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A few minutes later, there was nothing but a swinging phone that, was emitting a faint sound; "Processing your order…please hang up and try again…please hang up and try again…"

*****

"Man, I almost wish that Firenzy was here. At least there would be some noise. And he would be the first person to find the trouble. I hate waiting for trouble to come to you." Joe was looking all around in the hallway. "I think it's clear." 

The trio started to move carefully down the hallway. Sani spoke softly (if that's possible to do telepathically). 'Watch out for Nara Ska. She'll be watching the hallways because Lord Doukai can't trust anyone else to do it.' Suddenly, the little dragon's head whipped around. 'I think she's coming!' 

Gantoi and Joe looked at each other in panic. There were no apparent hiding spots and Gantoi would have been hard to hide on a good day in a best-case scenario. Right now, the three of them were borderline worst-case scenario and worst-case scenario gone worse. 

"Come this way, sirs. Quickly." Gantoi and Joe looked at the little old man in front of them and decided to follow him because they were more likely to be able to beat the crap out of a little old man than a mysterious fighter of which they knew nothing of, attack wise. 

Timbles led them into a nearby hallway and told them to remain motionless. Then he walked out of the hallway and encountered Nara Ska, who just nodded and continued on her walk. She seemed to completely ignore the hallway that the three were standing in. Once she was gone, Timbles walked back into the hallway.

"Judging from your astonished faces, I assume you do not know the full purpose of this hallway. It was created as a means for servants to appear silently without warning. Those outside the hallway cannot see into it, thus, when someone walks out of it, they have the appearance of coming from nowhere, which is, apparently, a trait which many employers look for in servants."

"Thanks a lot. Who are you anyway?" Joe was looking at the wrinkled butler.

"I am Timbles, the head butler to Lord Doukai, may he rot before he even hits his grave." Timbles looked at Gantoi and Joe. Then his eyes latched on Sani. "Mistress Sani, I am glad to see that you managed to find your way to help."

The little dragon nodded. 'If you hadn't gotten me out of there, who knows what he would have done to me. These are some of Aniya's friends. They are both powerful fighters from the fighting association that Aniya used to belong to.'

"I see. I presume that you want to be able to free you friends?"

Gantoi and Joe nodded. Timbles patted his vest pocket. "I think I have the keys to the cells." Finding them he held them up. "The number on the key correlates with a number on a door. They are currently being held in cells 3, 6, 11, 14, 23 and 29. I should warn you that those occupants in cells six and eleven might attempt to attack should you open the doors. Aniya is being held in twenty-nine. I suggest you release her first."

The demons nodded and thanked the little butler, but he had disappeared as they were looking at the keys. "Weird little guy. Wonder why he's gone rebel."

"I have no idea Joe. Let's find Aniya." Gantoi smiled, "I think that we should have brought Firenzy along. Do you know how excited he would have been to have to rescue Aniya from a cell in a guarded, underground fortress?"

Joe nodded. "Yeah. I can almost hear the guy now." Then, he could hear a really faint, "YEAH!! This is the coolest thing ever!! Let's do that again! It was like super slide but more super like!!" Joe shook his head. "Just thinking about that guy is annoying. I agree, let's get Aniya and get out of here."

They walked down the halls a bit until they found cell twenty-nine. Joe pushed a little buzzer thing on the outside. "Aniya?"

"What the hell do you want, bastard?" (Clearly thinking that it was Lord Doukai).

"Is that how you greet a long-time friend?" 

Aniya sat up and ran to the little buzzer thing. "Joe? What are you doing here?"

Joe grinned. "I've come to get you out. Gantoi and your little dragon buddy are here too."

"Sani?!" In a few seconds, the cell door was open and Aniya was embracing the little dragon. "Where were you? I am so sorry that I forgot about you after the demon ball!"

'That's okay. I understand. What we need to do now is get the rest of your  friends out of their cells.'

Aniya nodded. "Right. Tarukon should be the closest. His cell is on the same side as mine, but its several cells down, I think."

Gantoi nodded. "Does cell twenty-three sound right to you?" Aniya nodded in affirmation. 

"Joe?" The demon looked at her. "Give me the keys for the first three cells. I think that I'd better handle opening their cells because I don't think that all of them are completely familiar with you guys and even if they were, I think they're going to lash out at anything." 

Gantoi, Joe and Sani went to get Tarukon and Kuwabara out of their cells as Aniya went to release Kurama, Hiei and Yusuke. Turning down a different hallway, she found cells 3, 6 and 11. She tried three first. "Hey, who's in here?"

"Who are you? What do you want?" Aniya smiled. 'I was right. This is Kurama's cell. If it had been Yusuke's,  he would have sworn at me and if it was Hiei's, he would have blasted something in my face.'

"It's Aniya. Don't try to hurt me or anything because I'm opening the door." Moments later Kurama greeted Aniya.

"How did you escape?" He looked puzzled. "I thought Lord Doukai was the only one who had the keys to these cells. I assume you wouldn't jeopardize Yukina's health by destroying the door."

She smiled. "Damn straight. Gantoi, Joe and Sani are here. They've got the keys, from I don't fucking care where and they're getting Kuwabara and Tarukon. I decided that it might be better that if I got Yusuke and Hiei out because they're less likely to try to kill me than someone they might not recognize right away."

Kurama chuckled. "Understandable. Hiei and Yusuke are very quick to anger and quick to retaliate violently."

Aniya walked over the Yusuke's cell. "Stand back," she warned Kurama, "I don't know what he'll do." Opening the door, she pushed it open. A voice came from the inside:

"What the fuck?" Aniya peered around the doorframe.

"Yusuke? You ready to go or what?"

Yusuke grinned, "Let's go. I'm fucking tired of this cell anyway." Walking outside he saw Kurama, "Hey Kurama. I see you got out too. Where's everyone else?"

"Gantoi and Joe are getting the baka and Tarukon. We still have to get Hiei."

"Right." The three of them walked over to cell number six and then looked at each other.

"So who wants to open the door?" Aniya put out the question.

"I will." First Kurama pushed the buzzer and said, "Hiei? We're going to open the cell door. We'd appreciate it if you don't destroy anything or go running after Yu—" he stopped and looked at Aniya, "I mean, you know whom I am speaking of."

Aniya rolled her eyes. "My god. Do you people really think that I am that stupid? I know she's his brother, so there's no reason to go around saying you-know-who and stuff. It makes you sound like you're from Harry Potter."

Kurama opened the door and Hiei blurred out, glaring at Kurama. "Hn. Now what do we do, stupid girl?"

Aniya bit her lower lip. "We have to meet up with everyone else."

Hiei's jagan suddenly glowed beneath his bandana. "Nara Ska is coming."

Frantically looking around for a place to hide, Aniya realized that there _wasn't_ anywhere to hide, and started to run down the hall.

"Where do you think you're going? We have to fight her!"

Aniya stopped and gave them a disgusted look. "You guys don't get it, do you? If we fight Nara Ska, she's going to send a psycho-message to Doukai to tell him that something's wrong. The only way that we can recover the hostages safely and defeat Sukeisa is if we remain undetected. You don't want your girlfriend, your mother or your sister to die, do you?"

She looked them square in the eye and then they started running toward her. Aniya was worried. 'There should be a servants passage around here somewhere! Come on….'

*****

"Be quiet! If you aren't quiet they'll find us and then there will be trouble."

"Ok!" Firenzy had to be the only person in the world who could express that much excitement and still whisper. "This is so cool! Have you ever done this before?! We could be a team! The Great Firenzy and his lovely sidekick: Girl with the Blue Hair!! That would be so wicked!!"

Botan rubbed her head for the umpteenth time that hour. 'Goodness. Does he ever shut up? I didn't think that there was anyone who could talk as much as he has in the last fifteen minutes.' Botan was so annoyed with Firenzy that she didn't notice that they had just passed a pair of doors. The only reason why they went back to them was because Firenzy had said, "Oh cool! Do you think that those doors could have led to anywhere special?! I mean, they had SECURITY written all over them!!"

Botan whirled around, "What did you just say?"

"There were these two doors that said SECURITY ROOM all over them!!"

Botan did some quick thinking, 'I know that Koenma said for us to meet with the others as soon as possible, and that's what we should do. If we go messing into other people's business, then we might just screw up the mission and I don't want to do that.' So she continued walking. 

A few minutes later, she noticed it was really quiet. "Gee Firenzy, you've gotten quiet." Silence answered her. "Firenzy?" She looked around and there was no one there. "Where did he go?"

*****

Tarukon waited outside his cell with Sani as Joe and Gantoi went to go find Kuwabara. He turned to look at the little dragon on his shoulder, "Sani, wait, you _are_ the real Sani, right?"

'Who else would I be?'

"Well the last Sani that said she was the real Sani turned out to be a poorly manufactured robot."

Sani shook her little head, 'Well, I can prove to you that I'm the real thing and not some fake.'

"How?" Tarukon looked skeptical. 

She replied smugly, 'I can take the spell off of you that is preventing you from talking to Laotsu.'

Tarukon gave her a startled look, "There's a spell on me? How would you know?"

'Sukeisa is trying to keep the silver dragon from communicating with you so he removed the last of your dracon powers.'

He smiled but shook his head, "You have it completely mixed up. Aniya is the one with the dracon powers, not me. She's the own that Sukeisa took the power away from."

Sani looked him square in the eye. 'You really are dense, aren't you? I mean, I thought you were pretty smart, but Kuwabara must have been wearing off on you or something.'

"I'm not dense." He stared at the ceiling in exasperation. "I wish that someone would explain everything for once. It really does get tiring when you people just pop out of nowhere and say, 'Are you stupid?' or my favorite is 'Isn't it obvious?' If it was obvious, then I would know about it, obviously!"

Digesting this and then thinking about it, Sani replied. 'Okay, you want the full truth? Then let me lift the spell so that Laotsu can tell you everything. He will be able to explain it better than I can.'

Tarukon sighed. There was nothing else to do but to trust that the little dragon wouldn't do anything harmful to him. "Alright. You can lift the spell. But if you try and funny mind-controlling business, I will personally destroy you once I get free from your control."

Sani laughed and then set to work about lifting the strong spell that Sukeisa had put on the young man.

*****

Gantoi and Joe were heading over to Kuwabara's cell when they suddenly felt strange. "Joe, does that feel like, Aniya to you?"

Joe was shivering, "Yeah. Kinda of like when she was the Black Dragon and you could tell right away it was her, even if she wasn't making any noise, because she could send out this cold feeling."

"Do you think that she might be in trouble?"

Joe stopped in his tracks. "Considering that she just released the three most dangerous members of the Spirit detective team and their cells were in the middle of Nara Ska's patrol, I would say that it is likely that she's in trouble, but maybe she isn't."

Four blurs ran past, two black, one red and one green. Gantoi stared at Joe. "I think that that is our cue to follow them or stop them. Which would you prefer?"

"I think I'll run with them until we can figure out what they're running from."

"I think that's what they're running from."

Nara Ska came into view. She glared at the two demons with red eyes. "What are you doing here?" she whispered. "Who are you?"

Gantoi and Joe looked at each other. "We came…on a tour…and we got lost…where is the exit?"

Gantoi looked at Joe as if the four-eyed demon had gone crazy. Then he got the message: they needed to stall for as long as they could so that Aniya and her friends could get away.

"Tour? There are no tours here, and there are no exits. At least not for trespassers."

Joe and Gantoi braced themselves into fight mode. They both thought in unison, 'Thank god that Firenzy isn't here. If he was, he'd be screwing something up.'

Suddenly, Nara Ska turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Gantoi and Joe looked at each other with puzzled expressions. "What do you suppose made her go away?"

Joe shrugged. "My only guess is that Lord Doukai has screwed up big time or one of his underlings has." Then both demons turned to run to catch up with Aniya.

*****

"PortaA? Portab? Portac? Portad?…" Calisandra was still there, staring at the television screen with the doors on it.

"How about Portal?!!"

Calisandra whirled around to see a demon behind her with flaming red hair. "Who are you?"

"Hey! You're a pretty lady! I think I've seen you somewhere?! Haven't I?! I mean, weren't you at the demon ball or something?!"

The blonde rubbed her head. "Headache….I  remember you. The little twerp who wouldn't leave me alone."

"Why wouldn't I leave you alone?! You were pretty and you're boyfriend had just dumped you for Aniya!!"

Calisandra glared at him. "Taru-kun did _not_ dump me. He was…merely distracted by that bitch!"

"You, know, I always thought that ladies were supposed to be nice and kind!! But obviously…they were absolutely right!!"

She sweat-dropped and stood up. "Get out of here. You're not supposed to be in here."

"Really??! But this says Security Room on the door!! Are you sure that I'm not supposed to be in here??! I'd make a great security guard!!"

Calisandra smirked. "Like you could even find the brains to be a security guard."

Firenzy frowned at her, "You know, for a pretty lady, you're not really that smart!! Or pretty for that matter!! In fact, I know tons of ladies that are prettier and smarter and nicer and funnier than you! I wonder why you didn't turn out like them?! I mean, such a pretty face and such an ugly personality and everything—"

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!" Calisandra slapped him across the face. "YOU DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. YOU'RE SO STUPID!!!"

Firenzy gave her a death glare. "What the hell was that for??! I was just saying that you have a really ugly personality!!" She slapped him again. "See what I mean??! If you didn't have  an ugly personality, you wouldn't slap me all the time!! And I am NOT stupid!!"

"Are too."

"If you ask me, I think you're the one that's stupid because you're the one that's acting like the little baby that you are!! I can't stand people like you!! People who think that they are so cool but in reality they totally suck!!"

Calisandra clenched her fists. "Take that back!!"

"Nope!!" Firenzy grinned despite the two red slap marks on his cheeks. " I bet you're so stupid that you would starve if you got lost in a supermarket!!"

"Yeah? Well at least I'm not stupid enough to tell you the secret word that'll put the hostages back where they were!"

A light bulb shined in his head. "Really??! I bet you're too stupid to remember what the word even is!!"

Calisandra grinned evilly. "No! I do too know the word!! I'd have to be stupid like you to forget a word like 'Astoria'! You're probably the only one who'd be stupid enough to forget it!"

Firenzy smiled and said in the calmest voice that he'd ever spoken in, "Well, at least I wasn't stupid enough to be tricked into using the word against my will."

Calisandra's mouth clanged open. "What do you mean?" Firenzy pointed. The girl  turned around and gasped when she saw that the captives were gone. "Where did they go?" She ran over to the chairs that had held the hostages only moments before. 

Sensing someone was coming, Firenzy hid in the background as Nara Ska stormed in. "What do you think you were doing, foolish girl?!" Nara Ska asked furiously in her small voice. "Now you have ruined everything for Lord Sukeisa!"

"Don't you mean Lord Doukai?" Nara Ska glared at her. 

"My master told me what to do if this happened. You have made too many mistakes and we cannot allow it to continue if the master is to get his power. I have no choice but to commit seppuku."

Calisandra's mouth tried to sound out the word. "Seppuku? I've never heard of that before. Sounds unpleasant though."

Nara Ska's own mouth tugged into a smile. "Believe me it won't  be. Especially for you."

"What do you mean?" Calisandra started to back away as Nara Ska advanced on her. 

"Seppuku is an old ritual of the samurai. If they are captured, they were to commit suicide and die with honor, rather than remain a prisoner."

"Yeah, so you're going to commit suicide because I've screwed up. Whoop-di-freaking-do."

"But, in order for me to die, you must die first."

"WHAT??!" At this point, Calisandra turned to run, but Nara Ska had whipped out one of her flying ninja starts. Hitting Calisandra in the back of the head, both of the young women disappeared in a flash of smoke.

Firenzy stuck his head out from behind the chair that he was hiding behind. He heard a voice behind him. "Good work Firenzy. That killed three birds with one stone! Not only were you able to defeat Nara Ska and Calisandra, but you were able to return Keiko, Yukina and Kurama's mother back to their homes."

Firenzy remembered something. "What about the poison?! Aren't they going to die??! And what if he decides to go after them again!! They're just going to get hurt all over again!!"

Botan thought about this and then answer. "But Sukeisa is the only one who is left. Katomi is dead, Calisandra and Nara Ska are gone for good. No one knows where that creepy butler man is. There is no one to go after them. If Aniya and the others defeat him, then they won't have to worry anymore."

Firenzy seemed happy with this. "Soooo…we get to fight the bad guys right??! I mean, that would be so cool!! I want to be the one to kill Sukeisa in the end!!"

Alarmed, Botan decided to take a quick course of action. 'There is no way that I am letting this idiot get in the way of the fight. What do I do?' She caught a glimpse of one of the security cameras. "Hey, Firenzy, how would you like to play "Rescue" instead?"

"Really??! Who do I get to rescue??!"

A smile formed on Botan's lips. "Kuwabara."

A/N: I know. It's long. I had to end it at some point or it'd run into the final battle. Sorry if people wanted Calisandra to stick around. Face it, she was too stupid to survive for the whole story. As for Nara Ska, let me just say that history tends to repeat itself. Next time: the final showdown. Probably.


	18. The Final Showdown, again

A/N: Here we go. The hopefully-second-to-last-chapter in this madness. Just to let you know, it's kinda long, but it sounded really stupid if I cut it in half. Also, there is a song-battle thing, and the italics/underline/bold isn't co-operating, so please bear with me. You will be able to tell what is the song and what isn't. If there are no problems, then ignore the last 31 or so words. And the words are meant to be playing at the same time as the written action before them. (You'll get what I mean). Lawyers: I don't own YYH, Aero smith's "Angel's Eyes" or anything else that I might have forgotten about. Sorry that this took so long, but I've had school. So, read, review and enjoy, cause here's:

**Updated A/N 2012:** To remain in compliance with the terms of use that were updated in 2009, I have removed the lyrics to Aerosmith's "Angel's Eyes". The rest of the story has been preserved.

_**Part 18: The final showdown—for real this time!**_

'Hurry Tarukon! You get to Aniya not fast, then she die.'

Tarukon gritted his teeth. "Yes, thank you Laotsu for that lovely bit of obvious observation." He was running down one of the long hallways in the underground complex.

'Is no problem. Any time.'

Tarukon turned to Sani, "You've been here before, do you know the way to the Security room?"

'Yes…' Sani looked little hesitant, 'I think I do…'

She was interrupted by Laotsu's shouts. 'What hell? Why you go there? Aniya not in Security Room! She headed for Portal Chamber!'

"I know that. None of us know where the Portal Chamber is though, so if we find the Security Room, no doubt we can use the security cameras to find a way to the room."

'Good plan, but take too much time. Need to find faster way.'

"Would you rather that I run around aimlessly, hopelessly lost and just watch as she dies?"

'I not know. Would you?'

"Never mind." Tarukon continued his run to the security room and he thought about what had happened not fifteen minutes earlier…

_"Alright. You can lift the spell. But if you try and funny mind-controlling business, I will personally destroy you once I get free from your control."_

_Sani laughed. She closed her eyes and began to concentrate on blocking out Sukeisa so that Tarukon could communicate with Laotsu. 'Nearly got it…. okay, here goes nothing.'_

_Suddenly, Tarukon was bombarded with a very familiar voice. 'Hello? You hear me? Hello! Tarukon? You there?'_

_Tarukon immediately raised his hands to his head, feeling a headache coming on. "Will you quiet down in there? You're giving me a headache and I don't think I can handle one right about now."_

_'Sorry Tarukon. Let me guess, you want full truth, no?'_

_"Yes. That's right. I want to know what's going on because I'm sick and tired of people not telling me these things until it's too late."_

_'Okay, what you want to know truth about?'_

_"Everything. Such as, will Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame really get her back into her dracon body?"_

_'No.'_

_'NO?'_

_'No. It work not.'_

At that point, Tarukon had just started to run for the security room, ignoring whatever else Laotsu was trying to say. Laotsu had finally given up and tried to urge him to get to Aniya faster so that she wouldn't die.

Skidding around a corner, Tarukon stopped and found the door to the security room. Walking in, he noticed that there wasn't anyone there. "Probably a good thing for me. I don't think I'm a good enough fighter to face anyone under my father's employment." Looking at the cameras, he found the one that had a picture of a pair of doors with "Portal Chamber" written on them. "There. That's where we need to go." Quickly looking at the other cameras for references, he ran out of the room and down the hall toward the portal room.

The time on the screen with the picture blinked 11:49.

11:50. Lord Doukai looked at his watch and smiled. "Only ten more minutes and then I will become unstoppable. The colossal power I had in the old days will return to me and I can once again achieve my goal of world domination."

He began to pace around, looking at the wall, which would soon form a portal, transporting all the power from the past to the future. "As soon as I gain my power, the first ones to die will be that traitorous son of mine and his little girlfriend there. I would have wanted to kill Calisandra, but it seems that someone's already done that for me." He had noticed that Nara Ska's spirit energy had disappeared. "She really had to go in the end. It's a pity about Nara Ska though. She was such a good fighter."

Lord Doukai started to smile. "It doesn't matter because this fight is between me and the girl. The girl is a human, weak and vulnerable. She does not have the stone to return to her dracon form anymore. She thinks the dragon technique is the flame attack of Hiei's. This shall be amusing when she dies before she starts to fight."

Looking at his watch again, he watched as the hand slowly crept to 11:53.

Firenzy and Botan moved to the cells. They could hear someone talking. "Nice mouse…. that's right…. stay on your side of the cell…. and everything will be okay…. don't come near me…. hey! Didn't you hear me? I said don't come near me!"

"Squeak?"

Botan and Firenzy found Kuwabara in his cell, cowering away from a mouse that was approaching him. Kuwabara forgot his fear when he saw Botan and Firenzy.

"Oh, hey Botan. Who's that?"

Botan opened her mouth to answer, but Firenzy was there first. "I am the almighty Firenzy! Defeater of the bitchy-blond and the creepy person with the freaky red eyes!" He stepped into the cell. "Do as I say or I will use my DITSY POWER on you!"

Botan sighed and then decided that the best way to insure that these two wouldn't mess up the fight was to insure that they wouldn't be there to fight. Quietly, she shut the door and locked it before running down the hall toward the portal room.

"Hey! Open this door up! Don't leave me in here with a loony!"

"Who are you calling a loony? I am the almighty Firenzy with Ditsy Power!"

"Yeah? Well has your ditsy power ever met the all-power-spirit sword?"

"Spirit sword-schmirit sword! My power could take down your power any day!"

"Bullshit. I could win a fight against you with my hands behind my back!"

"I'd like to see you try!"

"Yeah? Bring it on Mr. Freaky Ditz!"

"Sure thing, Mr. Stupid!"

"That was horrible."

"Thanks! Now you are going to die!"

"Aniya! Wait up! We're coming with you!"

Aniya stopped running. She looked surprised when she didn't see Nara Ska coming after them. "Did you guys beat Nara Ska or something? She's not following us anymore."

Gantoi replied, "She ran away before we had a chance to fight her. We guess that something went wrong and she was told to go fix it."

Kurama nodded, "That sounds plausible. I presume now that our next task is to stop Lord Doukai from opening the gate to the past and letting Sukeisa get to it."

Yusuke punched his hand. "What about Yukina, Keiko and your mother? If we try and fight, Lord Doukai will kill them immediately."

A voice answered, "Shiori, Yukina and Keiko are perfectly alright. They are back to where they were before he took them." The group turned to look at Botan who had just got up with them. "Calisandra was tricked into saying the word that would put them back, perfectly free from harm."

"And the poison?" Kurama looked anxious.

"It's completely gone from their system. I checked them to make sure that they were all right. They are perfectly fine and don't remember ever being kidnapped."

All the members of the group smiled, (excepting Hiei, of course), relieved that one weight was off their backs. Suddenly, Gantoi asked, "When does the portal begin to open?"

"Midnight, why?" Aniya looked puzzled.

"It's 11:55 right now," said Joe, looking at his watch.

"What?"

"Fuck!"

"Dammit…"

"Hn."

Aniya turned, annoyed. "Is that all you ever fucking say?"

"Hn."

Kurama turned to Hiei as well. "Hiei, can you find where Lord Doukai is going to have the portal?"

"In the portal room, fool."

Aniya rolled her eyes. "Gee, thank you Captain Obvious for that lovely reply."

Yusuke asked, "So where the hell is the portal room?"

Hiei started to run, forcing the rest of the group to follow him.

11:59. Lord Doukai smiled as his watched blinked the happy news at him. In less than a minute, he would be on his way to becoming the most powerful sentient on the face of the planet, and he would smote a darkness upon the world as he ruled in his reign of terror.

12:00. Suddenly, a dark blue and gray circle formed on the wall. Inside there was a swirling vortex and Lord Doukai reached out his hand to touch it and was just about to do so when he heard a voice.

"Okay, you bastard. You ready to have your ass kicked?"

"Um…Yusuke, that's _my _line. Let me handle this."

"Shut up."

Aniya turned to glare menacingly at Lord Doukai. "Let's try this again. "Okay, you fucking bastard. Are you prepared to die?"

Lord Doukai grinned as only an insane person on the verge of acquiring everything that they want from life and know that there is nothing that can stop him, can. "You think that you can stop me? All I have to do is touch this vortex and I will receive all my former power. You, in that pathetic human form, think that you can stop me from getting what I need?"

Raising an eyebrow, Aniya shot back, "I'd like to see you try and fight, you bastard. We want to know where Sukeisa is. We don't have time for you."

There was no sound for a few seconds but the quiet chuckling of the man standing in front of the group. "You want to know where Sukeisa is? Can't you guess? I always believed that you were semi-intelligent, but clearly I was wrong." He reached out a hand, almost prepared to touch the vortex. "I _am_ Sukeisa. As soon as I touch this vortex, I can be rid of this pathetic identity," he said, gesturing at his body, "then I may return as Lord Sukeisa, ruler of the Earth's past, present and future, and what I command shall be."

Aniya frowned and nodded at Yusuke's group, who started to run toward Lord Doukai, or rather, Sukeisa, but Sukeisa raised hand, stopping them in their tracks. "Aren't you forgetting something, my dear?"

"And what would that be, bastard?"

Lord Doukai smiled, "I have three hostages by the names of Shiori Minamino, Keiko Ukimora and Yukina. Don't you think that you might want to put their well-being into consideration?"

"Who said anything about Yukina?"

"I saved them! It was all me! You can get my autograph later!"

Give you a guess as to which two idiots had just arrived.

Botan came flying in after them. "They're right. The three girls are fine now. It was lucky that your assistant Blondie knew the word to release them."

Sukeisa seemed to roll his eyes for a moment. 'This is about to be my moment in victory and ultimate achievement and my underlings have to ruin my reputation? What a way to start out a regime.' Then he stared at the group. "Well, you may have won the hostages back, but can you stop me before I touch the vortex? Nara Ska!" He snapped his fingers and waited a second.

Firenzy started laughing. "She committed sepeekoo! Or that's what she said!"

Aniya smiled at the paling Sukeisa. "You see? Even your most trustworthy fighter has failed you now."

"I have not failed him." Aniya stared at the girl with the red eyes who had just materialized out of nowhere and had stepped in front of Sukeisa. "To reach him, you must fight me first." Yusuke and Kurama stepped forward.

"We'll take care of her, while you and Hiei try to stop Sukeisa, because you're still the fastest two."

Aniya nodded and took off for Sukeisa at a high speed, but both she and Hiei were too far away to stop Sukeisa from shoving his hand into the vortex. Black and blue electricity exploded everywhere. And everyone shielded their eyes from the bright lights that were flying around them.

When they were able to look around again, they saw a demon standing in front of them. He had glowing red eyes and black hair. Grinning, Aniya was able to see that he had fangs. "Well, now that I have the majority of my power, I must say that this fight is about to get a lot more interesting." He snapped a finger at Nara Ska. "Get rid of these worthless pieces of trash."

Nara Ska whirled into a blur. Yusuke and Kurama ran toward her, spirit gun and rose whip ready. Gantoi and Joe were right behind them, with their attacks at ready. "SPIRIT GUN!"

Aniya saw the invisible stars flare out from Nara Ska. "Yusuke, watch out! The ninja stars!" One flick of Kurama's whip and the ninja stars were thrown off course. Nara Ska was circling around, looking at her opponents. One could almost detect a look of alarm in her expression when she saw Firenzy there.

"Not you." Firenzy looked at her funny. But he never had the time to ask his stupid question because Nara Ska launched a full attack on him and his companions, keeping them busy while Sukeisa could finish off Aniya and her other short friend there.

Aniya then turned her attention to Sukeisa. Power was just radiating off of him like mist off of liquid nitrogen. 'Now that he has the combined power, I don't know if I can beat him in this form.' She looked at Hiei. 'Although I don't want to do it, Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Technique must be the only way to get my power back.' She concentrated on him, hoping that he'd get her psychic message.

'Yo, midget boy over there with the dragon technique. I need you to blast me with your dragon thing.'

Hiei turned his gaze to her. 'You really have gone insane. No one survives the Dragon of the Darkness Flame.'

'Except me. I did, once.'

'But you were in your stronger form, fool.'

She sighed. 'What's with you? A while ago, you would have taken this opportunity without questions. Just fucking blast me with the dragon will you?'

"Fine Baka." Aniya watched as he unwrapped the bandage around his right arm. Then he raised it in her direction.

"Don't blame me if this kills you, baka."

Aniya smiled. "I won't." Aniya's back was turned to Sukeisa and Sukeisa saw what she was doing.

'No! I cannot let her regain her power! I must stop her!' He raised his own arm and her and prepared to blast her with an attack.

Kurama saw what he was up to and shouted, "Aniya, behind you! Watch out!" It was too late.

Hiei's and Sukeisa's energies left at the same time, both heading for Aniya. She would die if Sukeisa's reached her first. Turning, she saw the energies flying at her from opposite directions. She braced herself for impact and then realized that there was someone standing on the other side of her, in the way of Sukeisa's attack.

"Tarukon, get out of the way!"

"No."

Then there was a brilliant flash of light as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame and Sukeisa's attack met in the middle where Aniya and Tarukon were standing. Everyone, including Nara Ska shielded his or her eyes from the light of the attack, except Firenzy. He took this opportunity to jump on Nara Ska and pin her down. He then proceeded to sit on her head.

Finally, when the light was gone, everyone looked to see where Tarukon and Aniya were, if they had survived.

Where they had stood, was a black stain on the floor.

Sukeisa started to laugh. "Yes! Now I can accept the rest of my power. Now there is nothing to stand in my way of achieving ultimate power!" He turned around to face the vortex to receive the remainder of his power. The spirit detectives and the arena fighters prepared themselves to fight, when they heard a voice.

"So tell me, did you forget your fucking meds or something this morning?"

Sukeisa, as well as everyone else, turned around to see Aniya and Tarukon standing there. But there was something different about them. Tarukon's hair was now highlighted with silver streaks and his skin was paler. Aniya's hair was still black, but there was a blue metallic sheen to it, and her eyes and skin were back to their original color. Both of them seemed to glow from a power within themselves and Aniya's eyes glittered dangerously.

"We need to settle this once and for all, you fucking bastard."

Sukeisa crossed his arms. "Fine. But it's time for you to face the music, literally."

Aniya looked puzzled but then in hit her. "You realize that I don't need the stupid music anymore for attacks."

"But can you stop yourself from falling into your old habits of using them?"

"There's only one way to find out. Let's fight."

Somewhere in the background, someone scurried to find some music. Then a minute later, it started, the beginning of the end…

Aniya stared at Sukeisa who stared back. Then, at the same time, they ran toward each other, both aiming to beat the other to an attack. They collided and flew to the opposite sides of the room. Sukeisa jumped into mid-air and floated, waiting. He raised a hand and beckoned Aniya to join him. "Come, my dear, are you scared of heights?"

"You wish!" She jumped and floated mere meters away from him. He seemed a little surprised at her power, but he shrugged it off. 'The music is about to truly begin. Let us see how our little miracle can handle it.'

Aniya shot like an arrow toward Sukeisa, glowing in the process as the music started…

Sukeisa managed to easily dodge the attack and twirl out of the way…

Aniya stopped flying, only to see a huge blast of energy coming her way…

Somehow, she grabbed a purchase on clean air back-flipped out of the way in time…

Aniya sent bolts of electricity heading toward Sukeisa, who did a dozen flips to avoid the fast charges…

Sukeisa spun around after his last flip and drew out one of Nara Ska's ninja stars and threw it directly at her…

Seeing the ninja star, Aniya watched it draw closer and closer. 'Come on….just a little closer…then I can dodge it…'

As if in slow motion, she drew out her sword at the last minute and caused the ninja star to fly off course, back to Sukeisa…

Frustrated, he sent several dozen ninja stars, all pinpointed directly on her…

Hoping like hell, she prayed, 'Okay, this worked in the Matrix, please let it work in real life'. Then she twisted her body to avoid the ninja stars, much like Neo did when he was avoiding bullets…

Aniya flew toward Sukeisa with her sword raised up, ready to attack the minute she hit him…

He met her sword with bright sparks…

She twisted her sword away and did a three-sixty spin and brought her sword down again…

Only to find that he had once again managed to block it…

Angry, she sent blow after blow against his sword, never letting him put in an attack…

Sukeisa looked slightly alarmed at the speed and accuracy at which she was attacking, but kept his defenses up the entire time. Not even daring to let them down…

Sukeisa brought his leg out and kicked Aniya in the chest, forcing all the air out of her…

Clutching her stomach, she dropped toward the ground…

Sukeisa floated down, following her, hoping that she would be significantly affected by the attack so that he could win without much of a hassle…

Sukeisa landed and watched as Aniya struggled to get off the ground. Laughing he smiled at kicked her in the side, forcing her onto her back. Then he flipped her over with his foot, so she was face down.

"You'll never win."

Aniya's head snapped up and she was once again glowing.

Sukeisa raised an eyebrow. 'She doesn't know when to stop, does she? Oh, well. I guess I'll really have to make an effort, won't I?' He raised a fist that was glowing with a dark red energy…

Aniya watched as he powered his attack. 'There's no way that I can meet that attack dead on…'

Doing side flips, she avoided the first blast of the attack…

She paused in her dodging to see him preparing an even larger fist, as he aimed it toward her…

Then she saw the attack separate into directions and she tried to doge all of them…

One of the parts of the attack hit her in the side, causing her to fall to the floor…

Sukeisa was about to reach for the portal and celebrate his victory when Aniya rose…

Her body glowed with dark red energy, which was unmistakably Sukeisa's…

Raising an arm, she pointed her finger at him, and all of the dark red energy gathered in the tip of her index finger…

She pulled the imaginary trigger and sent his energy, with some her own mixed in, toward him…

Sukeisa watched as the dark red energy, now streaked with black-blue cackles of electricity, headed toward him…

The blast hit Sukeisa straight on, created a black mass of miasma…

Both fighters stopped as Aniya stared at Sukeisa's damaged body…

Sukeisa stared in shock at the wounds that he had received. "How could you? I should be invincible, and you are in your weak, human form. There is no way that you should have access to your spirit energy. Your dracon form couldn't even handle that much energy!"

Aniya smirked. "I have no fucking clue as to what happened. But I know that I can do it again."

"But I'm invincible. The only reason that you were able to cause damage was because the majority of that attack was my energy!" Then Sukeisa paled as he realized what he had just said and paled even more when he saw that Aniya had raised her index finger to study it.

"Hm…well it just so happens that I have a little of your energy left…now what to do?" she mimicked contemplating what to do for a few seconds until…

"Combine our energies!" Kuwabara and Firenzy glared at each other as they replied in unison and continued so, "What?" "I said that first!" "It's my idea!" "No it's not!"

Yusuke had walked over and punched them both in the face. "Guys! Stop acting like the fucking morons that you are!" While everyone else sweat-dropped.

Aniya nodded, "Guys, everyone blast me with your energy. Now!"

Everyone looked at her as if she was insane. She shot them back with a furious look, "Well, I survived Hiei's dragon technique, didn't I?"

They shrugged. Kuwabara and Firenzy were the first to beam their energy to Aniya. Yellow and orange mixed in with the dark red and blue black to make a very colorful ball of electricity. Aniya controlled this between her hands and then nodded to Kurama and Hiei to add their electricity. Soon, light red and black were in the mix as well.

Gantoi, Joe and Yusuke shot green, brown and light blue energy into the mix. Aniya turned to Tarukon, smiled and nodded. Silver electricity flowed around the others. At this point, the attack was very large. Aniya smiled at Sukeisa and said, "Don't you just hate it? Being so close to your goal, and yet you fail." Before she threw the attack she added one last thing, "It looks like I've killed all of your friends, instead of the other way around."

The attack was released. Sukeisa turned around to try and jump inside the portal, so that he could escape the attack. The portal was rapidly closing, but he thought that he might have been able to fit inside, so he tried to squeeze into the small space.

He never found out if he could have fit inside the hole, because the portal closed just as he reached the wall, so the only thing that he had time to do was watch as his own destruction came about.

There was a lot of noise and light. Suddenly, the shaking stopped, but something wasn't right. All the demons realized that the whole complex was going to collapse on them.

"Run!" Kurama yelled as the group started for the exit of the chamber. For a few seconds, they seemed lost before Timbles appeared in front of them and beckoned for them to follow him. They all rushed up the ladder that led to a very familiar pay phone.

They watched as a mansion in the distance crumbled to dust along with the rumblings under the ground.

It was over.

Or not quite….

A/N: So, that was the second to last chapter. Whew! Once again, I thank you to the people who reviewed so that I could update. There's one more chapter to go….it won't have much fighting in it. I hope. Tell me what you thought of it. And don't worry, I didn't forget about Nara Ska. She's still there…or is she? So review, and I hope you've enjoyed the story (I sound really stupid…) -_-;


	19. After Party

A/N: Hey I'm back! (Finally) Midsummer Night's Dream is finally over. So I hope to get some extra writing in. That is, until Creation of the world starts (I'm designing costumes ^_^). I hope that you guys like this chapter. I don't know what to call it, so if you want to review *_~ then you can tell me what you think it should be called because "I'm not sure what to call this yet" isn't too great a title. Oh yeah:

I don't own YYH or Nara Ska. (She's all my sister's). Give a girl some credit for her characters.  

**_Part 19: I'm not sure what to call this yet_**

Firenzy let out a yell "YEAH!!! WE DID IT!! THAT WAS LIKE, SOO TOTALLY COOL!!!! DID YOU SEE ME WITH MY FIGHTING MOVES AGAINST THAT NARA SKA?! WOW!! WASN'T I JUST AWESOME??!!!"

Aniya rolled her eyes and replied sarcastically, "Yeah, it was _so_ amazing of you to jump on Nara Ska when she couldn't see and then sit on her head so she couldn't get up. It was so cool."

"I'M GLAD THAT YOU THINK SO!!!!"

Gantoi winced, "Firenzy, I think that you can stop yelling at this point. We've all endured more noise today that we might have needed for the span of our entire lives."

"OH! OK-ay!" Everyone sighed, at least Firenzy's psycho opinions were at a more appropriate level. It was then decided that since Kurama's house was in fact, the closest, that they would head over there. Besides, there was a concerned son, brother, and I guess you could say boyfriend that wanted to check on Yukina and Mrs. Minamino.

As they were walking back, Yusuke fell into step with Aniya. "Hey, that was hard core stuff back there. Where'd you learn to do stuff like that?"

Aniya stopped for a moment. "I don't know. I want some of of these fucking strange things explained to me and I have a feeling that the only person, at this point, who could explain just what the hell has been going on is Laotsu."

Tarukon nodded, having overheard their conversation. "He's got some things he wants to say, but he says that first we need Sani, you and me to release him or something."

She shrugged. "Once we get back to Kurama's house, then everything better get clearer because this is confusing as hell."

As the group walked back, they failed to notice the pair of glowing red eyes that were following them, hidden in the shadows of the trees and buildings. Nara Ska cursed repeatedly. 'How could I have ever been so entirely convinced in what I was doing that I was so stupid to not notice that he was there? This is a disgrace. I cannot even begin to think about having him for a master.'

*****

Kurama and Hiei were the first of the group to reach the front door of the house. Taking out his key, Kurama opened the door. "Mother? Are you home?"

Mrs. Minamino came out of the kitchen with a wet dish and a dishtowel in her hands. "Hell Shuichi. I see you and your friends are back from your little outing."

Firenzy was about to blurt out, "Hey! Pretty lady!!! Don't you remember that I saved you!!" But Gantoi and Joe anticipated this and clamped their hands over his arms and mouth so that he couldn't blow their cover. Apparently, Kurama's mother and Yukina, since they were unconscious for the entire time, had no idea that they had been kidnapped. Mrs. Minamino looked at Firenzy strangely, because it appaeared that he was struggling with Joe on one side and air on the other. (On the account that Mrs. Minamino cannot see demons like Gantoi and Sani. Joe had his horns covered and his other two eyes were disguised at the moment).

Yukina came out of the kitchen as well. "Kazuma, you're back! Where did you go?"

Kuwabara, put on the spotlight, was not prepared to answer the question. "Uh….we…were….at…um…the park! Yeah, that was it! The park!"

"Did you have fun?"

Firenzy finally struggled out of Gantoi and Joe's grasps. "Yeah! We had fun!!! There was lots of bright lights and fighting and--!" The two other demons had re-established their grips and were forcefully escourting him into the living room.

Yukina looked surprised. "You were fighting?"

"Only practice battles. We weren't really trying. It was just a practicing exercise." Aniya reassured her, "Nobody was hurt. We just wanted to make sure that we were in shape."

"Oh! I see. For when you have to fight Sukeisa." Yukina smiled but then she remembered that Mrs. Minamino was not aware of demons and other non-human life forms. Everyone looked around quickly, but saw that Shiori had returned to the kitchen earlier and was in the midst of making some more tea for everyone.

Yukina went to the kitchen as well, to help get the teacups and everything ready. Kurama sighed. "We have to be on our guard with what we say. I suggest we all go into the living room and see if we can make any sense out of what has happened." Everyone agreed to this and followed Kurama.

Aniya's eyes lit up when she saw the sofa. Running over to it, she jumped onto it and promptly sat down on it as if it was the last thing she was ever going to sit on. Kurama smiled, remembering what had happened last time she was in his house and her reaction with the sofa. Tarukon came in and sat next to her, with Sani on his shoulder. 

Hiei went over to the window and proceeded to lounge there. Firenzy was sitting, looking very angrily at the two demons on either side of him. They were looking around and whistling, somehow, Firenzy had managed to "have an accident with the duct tape" so that his mouth was taped shut and his arms were bound together. He glared at Gantoi and Joe. 

Kuwabara, Yusuke and Botan came in and found places to sit, either on whatever chairs there were left or on the floor. It was, needless to say, somewhat crowded in there. Mrs. Minamino came in with tea for Yusuke, Botan, Kuwabara, Aniya, Tarukon, Hiei, Kurama and Firenzy. After she had left, Yukina came in with tea for  Gantoi and Joe, knowing that Mrs. Minamino would not have be able to see them. Before she left, she told them that she would continued to talk with Mrs. Minamino so there would not be any chance of her overhearing what they were saying.

Everyone smiled, and was grateful (because now they didn't have to pretend that Yukina hadn't been kidnapped (again) and that they hadn't already defeated Sukeisa). Then, everyone turned to look at Aniya and Tarukon. It was Botan who asked. "So what happened back there? You two seem to have changed a bit."

Aniya and Tarukon looked at each other then back a t everyone else. "We have no idea. But we know someone who could tell us what has been going on." Tarukon replied. "But we need to figure out a way to get him out here, so that he can talk to us. I think that he has been somewhat antsy to get out of my head for a while."

Sani flew down into Aniya's lap and chirped at her for some length. Aniya blinked. "Sani. I can understand you again…that must mean…" she looked at Tarukon for a bit, with a confused look on her face, she grabbed a piece of her hair, "Aw, crap. It's changed colors again." She looked down on Sani. "Okay, can _you_ tell us what the fuck has been happening?"

'You need to get Laotsu out of Tarukon.  The only way to do this is use the Dragon calling technique.'

"And that is…?"

'You focus your mental energy on bringing that person from wherever they are to the place you want them to be. In this case, you need to focus hard on Laotsu. Since he is not in physical form, you should be able to drag him out of Tarukon's mind.'

"And this won't hurt Tarukon at all?"

'No. It shouldn't.'

"How can you be so sure?"

'I cannot explain. I do not have the authority to tell you these things. You must hear them from Laotsu yourself.'

Aniya rolled her eyes. 'Great. I've got a little dragon friend who is uncertain whether or not this technique thing that I've never used before will have a negative effect on my friend.' Then Aniya closed her eyes and thought about everything that she knew about Laotsu…

She could hear the gasps and almost sense the shock and awe that was radiating off of everyone else in the room. When she opened her eyes again, there was a little old man standing in the middle of the floor, with light blue robes on. His beard nearly touched the floor and his face was very wrinkled. (Think the emperor in Mulan, but with more of a Yoda kind of height). 

"At last, I return." Then he looked around and spotted Tarukon. "You stupid boy! How you mess up? I tell you everything! You mess it up! I shamed to know you get my powers."

"…"  There was bunch of silence until Aniya broke it.

"Okay, so you're Laotsu?" The little man turned around and saw her. "Can you tell us what the fuck went wrong? What about the—"

"You too noisy for your own good. Be quiet and I explain all." Aniya glared at him. 

"No, you be quiet. I've grown up my entire life and you screwed everything up. Nothing went according to the poem you told me!"

Laotsu looked confused. "What you mean? I tell you poem, and you follow it. What go wrong?" He seemed to think for a moment. Then he started mumbling. "Make allies, who do good….fight bad guy…inherit powers when time comes…there two children…"

Aniya gave him a bewildered look. "What are you talking about?"

"I recite poem about prophecy."

Tarukon, Kurama and Aniya gave each other confused looks. Kurama voiced the question. "Excuse me sir, but those were not particulars of the poem that you told Aniya."

"It not?"

Aniya shook her head. "No. This is the poem that you told me:

Even though I may be dead,   
Sukeisa lives, his evil blood was not shed.   
When the stars align in a winter sky,   
His evil powers, will once again, begin to fly.   
Who will help the good? Who could fight a power so wild?   
Aide will come in the form of a dragon child.   
She can wield the power in the stone and save you all,   
But what good will she be is does fall?   
Only with friends, can she let the power free,   
So seven friends there will be,   
Until the last minute, when it is almost too late,   
Then and only then, will there be eight.   
The seven will help her find the last,   
Someone from her bitter past.   
And without the eighth friend,   
All that is good and pure will come to and end."

Laotsu stood, apparently shocked. "No, that for your daughter, Sani."

"My DAUGHTER??!"

"Her DAUGHTER??!"

The little old man nodded. "You not know?" She was sitting in shock. Slowly she shook her head. Then something hit her.

"What about the seven friends? I didn't need the seven?"

Laotsu shook his head. "No."

Aniya sweat-dropped. "So you mean to say that I made friends with this baka" she said pointing at Kuwabara "and this baka" she pointed at Hiei "for nothing?!" Aniya stood up, enraged. "What the hell is up with that? You tell me to make friends with Gengkai, Koenma, Botan, Kuwabara, Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Yukina. Then in the end I didn't need to know Gengkai, Koenma or Yukina and I needed to know Gantoi, Firenzy and Joe!"

"Is all bullshit."

"What." Aniya gave him a death glare. "Do you mean?"

"I make it all up. I bored. Your prophecy all bullshit." He smiled.

Tarukon was mad too. "You mean to say that you put Aniya's life on the line? Why?"

"I not put her life on the line. She take care of herself."

Aniya frowned. "Then why the hell did you tell me the fucking poem? All it did was screw me up. You showed me pictures of Yukina when I was little and I believed that I had to find her, and she was the eighth friend that I needed." She plowed on, regardless of the fact that Laotsu was trying to put something in. "Then you send me that freako dream that said that Hiei was the eighth one. What the fuck was going on?"

Laotsu smiled, "That whole part of plan."

"Wha?"

"I succeed in confusing you, enemy not know truth either." Sani flew onto his shoulder and nodded.

'You see, Aniya. There always was a chance that Sukeisa would have been able to find you and so Laotsu was _supposed_ to tell you a prophecy that was completely made up so that he wouldn't be able to figure out who he had to stop in order to stop you. If Laotsu had told you the prophecy that you needed to win this, then Tarukon would have been dead much earlier.'

Aniya whipped her head around and frowned at Tarukon, giving him a look that asked, 'Do you understand what's going on?'

"You wonder why it Tarukon? Well, it time to explain your past."

Aniya rolled her eyes. "Okay, I may be confused, but I know this much. I'm the dragon child, the weapon created by you when you lived in the olden times to fight the Sukeisa of the future." She looked the little man in the eye. "I'd also like to know why the fuck my hair has been through more color changes than Pink."

"Who Pink?"

"Never mind."

"Okay." Laotsu smiled. "You and Tarukon are dragons."

Tarukon and Aniya gave each other a disbelieving look and Tarukon kindly pointed out Laotsu's mistake. "You're slightly wrong there. I am a _hu-man_ and Aniya is a _dra-Con_. Not a dragon."

Laotsu shook his head. "I right. You and Tarukon are dragons. You black dragon and Tarukon silver dragon."

"But we were all told that you were the silver dragon." Laotsu nodded at Gantoi. 

"I am."

"Then why are you telling us that he's the silver dragon?"

"He inherit my power."

"WHAT???! THAT IS SO TOTALLY COOL???!!! CAN I INHERIT POWERS TOO????!"

Everyone glared at him. "SHUT UP FIRENZY!!"

Firenzy sulked in his chair.

Laotsu rubbed his head. "I take Tarukon and Aniya for a walk. Be back later." He stood up and moved out of the room. Turning around he beckoned the two to follow him. Firenzy nearly tried to follow, but Gantoi and Joe were quick to stop him. As soon as the three were out of the room, Koenma appeared.

"Hello everyone."

Yusuke was angry. "You knew that we'd have to fight Sukeisa in the end, didn't you?"

Koenma appeared to think for a moment. "Ummm…. maybe?"

"Aniya didn't actually need our help in reclaiming the Astoria stone, did she?"

"Now that you think of it…no."

"THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU SEND US ON THE MISSION IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"

"Calm down, Yusuke. I had to get you acquainted to her somehow, and that mission seemed the only time that would make sense for you to get to know her." He sighed. "Whether she likes to admit it or not, she really needed your powers for the last battle. Without that she might not have had the strength to kill Sukeisa."

Botan asked, "Why did Laotsu tell Aniya the wrong poem, and show her images of the wrong people? I still don't understand. Wouldn't that be hurting her more than helping her?"

Koenma shook his head. "But by telling her the wrong poem, when Sukeisa accessed her mind, he thought that that poem was the true prophecy and planned all of his counter attacks according to the poem, and the fact that he thought that she was just a dracon, instead of the dragon that she really is."

"So if Sukeisa planned attacks, anticipating for certain maneuvers, then he would be unprepared if anything else happened, as was the case."

Koenma nodded at Kurama. "That's right. That was also why Laotsu also pretended to shift the attention of the "eighth friend" from Yukina to Hiei, even though Tarukon would have been the real "eighth friend", because then Sukeisa would not know which to target. By changing the person to someone else who was not even the real eighth person, Sukeisa would spend more time trying to figure out which one was the real one, and totally ignoring that his "son" was the actual person."

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "Great. That makes a whole lotta sense."

"It isn't supposed to. That's the whole point. Confuse the enemy almost as much as us and there's no way that he could win."

"Great strategy." Replied Yusuke sarcastically. 

"I'm glad you think so Yusuke." Koenma replied.

"What's going on? I'm so confused…." Kuwabara said scratching his head.

Everyone in the room sweat-dropped except Firenzy, who was still sulking.

*****

Tarukon and Aniya were walking on either side of Laotsu. Both of them were somewhat confused. Aniya stared up at the sky. 'Why the fuck is he taking us on a walk?'

'Maybe he wants some exercise.'

Aniya's head whipped over to look at Tarukon. 'Did he just talk to me telepathically?'

'Afraid so.'

'You can speak telepathically.'

'You've said this already.'

'Well I was just checking, because you weren't able to before.'

'But that was before all this happened.'

'Oh, right.' 

The two suddenly realized that they had fallen behind Laotsu. "Come on! You have time for being in love later!"

Aniya and Tarukon's jaws dropped. "We weren't" "We aren't" They said at the same time. They looked at each other and then quickly glared at the little old man who was grinning. He was more devious than the matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof.

Laotsu smiled some more. "We nearly there. No worry."

"Good, 'cause I'm getting tired of you leading us around."

He suddenly stopped. "We here."

Aniya and Tarukon looked around. It was a perfectly normal alleyway. Aniya looked around, suddenly suspicious. 

"Hey, this looks a lot like my house….wait! It is my place! What the fuck are we doing here?"

Laotsu turned around and…three guesses what he did. Yup, he smiled. "We here because it a dragon place."

Aniya crossed her arms. "Okay little guy. I've had enough crap from you. Explain what the hell has been going on and just what the fuck has been happening to us."

"Okay. Let us inside and I explain everything." 

With that, Aniya performed the spell to allow her to open the door and they went inside.

A/N: Well, it looks like I'll get one more chapter in here after all. Sorry that I couldn't update sooner. As mentioned above, please send me suggestions for the chapter title. I have run out of chapter titles and I have no idea what to call this one. 


	20. Everything Comes to an End, Eventually

A/N: Okay, Fanfiction.net really screwed up and totally deleted my story, so what I have done is created a new penname and I am re-posting my story. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience. Here is the last chapter of the story. Enjoy. Let me know if I should post another story.

**_Chapter 20: Everything Comes to an End—eventually_**

Ayame walked over to her dilapidated sofa that looked like it had been used as target practice for World War IV. She jumped onto it and then looked at Laotsu expectantly, barely containing her annoyance at the little old man. "Okay. Out with it. Why the fuck did you, tell me the wrong fucking prophecy in the first place? What was the prophecy supposed to be? Why the hell do you keep making references to our daughter? As if there's ever going to be one!" 

She was glaring at Laotsu and didn't notice that Tarukon looked a little downcast as she said that. Nevertheless, Ayame plowed on anyway.

"What bullshit did you make up about the stone? I thought the Astoria stone was the thing was supposed to help me, not fucking make me weak before the final battle!" She was really getting wound up because of all the stress that she had had to deal with for the last couple of days. "I want to know why the fuck—"

Tarukon sat down beside her and interrupted her tirade. "We both deserve an explanation. We are still confused about the human verses dracon verses dragon situation. Perhaps if you could explain to us, what exactly has been going on?"

Laotsu grinned and Tarukon had to physically restrain Ayame as she attempted to leap at the little old man and strangle him right then and there.

"Well, you see…long time go…."

_"What are you? An idiot? If we let Sukeisa run unchecked now, then there will be no hope for any of us to beat him. He knows our secrets. He was a dragon once, don't you remember?"_

_Laotsu sighed. There was just no stopping Sani when she got riled up. "I know. But, what can we do? The demon-dragon treaty said that we couldn't come after the demons that are not actually doing anything."_

_"Not doing anything? Are you insane? He's raising an army!"_

_"Is that against the law?"_

_"Yes!"_

_"Is it against demon law or dragon law?"_

_"Dragon law, of course—oh."_

_"We cannot go after him because he is now a demon. We cannot punish him for breaking a dragon law when he is a demon. All we have heard is that he is raising an army. We have no actual proof. He hasn't hurt anyone and he doesn't have the power to do the dark arts any more."_

_"But he will find a way. Just you watch. Then you, and the other sissy members of that stupid council will see that you are wrong and that I was right all along. Just you watch and see."_

"You see, long ago, there were many more dragon than today. There were two main dragons: silver and black. They control light, dark, life, death, peace, war and other thing. Sukeisa once a dragon up for silver position, but then he started practice dark arts. Dark arts bad. They were left over from time when more dragons, wizards and priestesses around. So dragon council, is eight dragons, with silver and black at head, stripped him of dragon power and body, made him a demon.

"He an evil creature. He kept dark arts and as demon, started raising army to defeat dragons. Dragons, at time, were defenders of balance of life. He wanted all power for himself. His army could not fight all dragons, so he killed them off. One by one. He would trick them into killing themselves with own powers, using dark arts. They smashed all dragon eggs. There no more dragons except me and Sani. We had to figure out what to do…"

_"Laotsu! We cannot stop him now! I told you earlier, that if we didn't stop him then, that it would be impossible for us to stop him now! And look, who was right? Me. Who didn't we listen to earlier? Me. So, what do you propose we do, Mr. Silver dragon, keeper of the peace?"_

_"I suggest that we do nothing for this time."_

_"What??! Sit around and do nothing while he, and the rest of his demon army come to kill us, the last two defenders of the balance of the forces of life?"_

_"I did not say do nothing. I just said, do nothing for this time."_

_"…and that would mean?"_

_"That we find some way to keep him sedated, until the future, when stronger descendants of ours can fight and defeat him."_

_"Um, he-llll-oo! He destroyed all the dragon eggs, remember? There are no children! There will be no descendants!"_

_"Unless we use the Astoria Stone."_

_"Now I KNOW that's against dragon law."_

"The Astoria was stone created to save world if dragons no do their jobs. It forbidden to use it, and there a tremendous cost to use it. Person who uses it, depending on wish, would pay dearly. So Sani and I thought of way to keep Sukeisa dormant until future, when descendants could destroy him…"

_"Sani, are you ready?" The black dragon turned to look at Laotsu._

_"I am about to give up my life, and sacrifice my powers to defeat Sukeisa. What do you think?"_

_"Um….no? You are scared?"_

_"Helll no! I am fucking ready for this baby! The question is are you ready? You've got you're little reincarnation spell crap ready to go, and are you sure that you've got the right century?"_

_"Yes. I am ready. Let's do this."_

"Sani and I combined powers to finish last spell. But Sukeisa's army attacked while we perform spell, so didn't work. He not completely subdued, just sent to future, about ten years before you born. We send you two to future, and hope like hell you survive. That's why you dracons for while. So you have extra chance to survive. Sani put last of her power into stone and created a dragon, Sani, to be a guide to you later on. If you no find Sani. Sani find you. Eventually."

Ayame sat still for a while, just absorbing what the old man had just told them. "So Tarukon is now the silver dragon and I'm the black dragon? Are we supposed to join some council-crap or something?"

Laotsu shook his head. "There no need for that. Sukeisa gone so there no worry, no? So you no have to be in council. But you prepare someone to take place for when you die. So there dragons just in case someone threaten you again."

Tarukon realized several things, "I have two questions: first of all, you mentioned earlier that the prophecy that you told Ayame was actually intended for our daughter?"

"Yes. There will be problem in future. Your daughter need to find eight friends to fight evil."

"Out of curiosity, any particular reason for eight friends. Why didn't you make it, say, eleven and half or some other number?"

"There eight dragons in dragon council, which is formed when there time of need. Normally, black and silver dragon run show, and they elect replacements, but this time different. Your daughter will be neither silver nor black. She will be white dragon. The original eight were scarlet, opal, gold, jade, sapphire, amethyst, black and silver. But there no replacements this time. Daughter will be white dragon, a fighter, and she lead the other eight, who will be reincarnates of last eight dragons. Other question?"

"Yes. How do we know that you aren't making a mistake again, like with Ayame's prophesy?"

"Is okay dis time. There no rush, and everything right this time."

"And what if Tarukon and I never hit it on? Or what if we kill each other out of annoyance?"

"That not going to happen. I tell you really like each other anyway."

"What makes you say that, little old geezer?"

"Is truth."

"I'm sure it is." "Riiiiight" The two dragons looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Laotsu stood up and started to leave Ayame's apartment (if you could call it that). Ayame jumped up and glared at his back. "Where the hell do you think that you're going?"

"I go home to have tea. See you lata!"

A pulse on Ayame's forehead pulsed. 'If he swears like that one more time, I'll beat the crap out of him.'

'But Ayame, that would be messy, and who would clean it up?'

Ayame whirled around. "I forgot that we can speak telepathically now. That's just great. Now there's more than one voice in my head."

Tarukon stood up and looked Ayame in the eye. "Ayame?"

"What?"

"Would you like to go out some time and….." Ayame's eyes widened in shock when she heard what he was saying. Then she rudely interrupted him,

"I'm sorry. I don't do dates."

"Who said anything about dates?"

Ayame's face contorted into a look of confusion. "Then what the fuck did you mean?"

"I was going to say, before you interrupted me, would you like to go out and train some time? Just some fighting practice, one-on-one, as they say?"

Ayame looked at Tarukon skeptically. "But you don't fight."

"But you do." They walked to the door and Ayame deactivated the security spell so they could pass through. "Sure."

Once they were both outside, Ayame reactivated the lock and they started to walk for Kurama's house. "Hey, with Sukeisa dead and all, do you get anything that was his?"

"Oh, that's right. I have the stadium where you fight. That was Lord Doukai's and I guess that as his 'son' I get it because he died. So I guess the stadium is mine."

"Are you going to sell it, or keep it?"

Tarukon thought about this for a while. "I'm not sure. I might give it away." He turned to her, "What do you think Gantoi and Joe would say about becoming co-owners of the stadium? That way, they can run the show and I don't really have to worry about it. Then I can get a real job and earn some money for once."

Ayame was quiet for a while. "Hey, since you don't have a house or anything, you wanna chill at my place until you can get yourself a flat or something?"

"Are you serious?"

"Ummmm…last time I checked."

"I'll take you up on your offer then."

"For real?"

"For, as you say, real."

They smiled to each other and continued on their semi-long walk back to Kurama's house to settle everything once and for all.

****

"So you two will accept the stadium?"

Gantoi and Joe looked at each other. "Sure."

Tarukon looked at Firenzy who was beaming. He should not have been. He was just denied the right to take part in the ownership of the stadium. So Tarukon gave Kurama a quizzical look. Kurama was going to explain when Ayame found Nara Ska in the kitchen when she was helping Yukina bring the tea back.

"AHHHHH!! DIE YOU BITCH!! I THOUGHT YOU GOT KILLED!"

Kurama's eyes widened and he stared at Yusuke for a moment. Then Yusuke muttered, "Oh shit." They ran out of the room and brought back a very angry Ayame. She was kicking and attempting to tear away from their grips. 

"What do you guys think you're doing? She's the fucking enemy! She must die!" Gantoi and Joe sweat-dropped. Hiei just stared out of the window again as Kuwabara swaggered up to Ayame.

"That's where you're wrong for once. You see she's—" but he got interrupted.

"HEY! SHE'S MY SERVANT!! I GET TO TELL ABOUT HER YOU IDIOT!"

"Who's calling who an idiot? You're the idiot?" Kuwabara and Firenzy got into one of those traditional fights, where all you can see is a cloud and a couple of flying limbs. 

While they fought, Ayame said, "servant?" She stopped struggling and staggered over to the sofa and looked at Yusuke and Kurama. "What does he mean by servant?"

Kurama explained. "When Nara Ska killed Calisandra, the ownership bond that was between her and Calisandra switched to Firenzy. So now she has to do what Firenzy says, apparently."

Ayame walked to Firenzy and asked, "So what are you going to make your fucking servant do?"

"I don't know!! Maybe she'll play a game with me!!" Firenzy was suddenly thoughtful. "Maybe we can go traveling!!"

Smiling cruelly at Nara Ska, she turned to Firenzy, "Have you ever been to Sea World?"

"Sea World?! You mean the place with all the pretty dolphins?! And the cute little stuffed animals that look like fish??!"

"That's the place."

"LET'S GO NARA SKA!! WE'RE GOING TO SEA WORLD!!" Grabbing her arm, he yanked her out the door. Ayame started laughing as she watched them go down the street. Before they disappeared, she clearly heard in a whispering voice, "I will get you back for this." Nara Ska's threat caused Ayame to laugh some more at the demons misfortune.

Closing the door, she encountered Kurama. "Was that really necessary?" But he was smiling too, so Ayame wasn't too concerned. She followed Kurama back into the living room, but she walked right into his back. "Hey Kurama, why'd you stop?" Peaking around him, she noticed why he'd stopped.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were sitting on the sofa looking at some pictures. Judging from the way that they kept looking at Hiei and Ayame, Ayame took a guess at what they were looking. Livid, she turned to face Kurama.

"I. Thought. We. Destroyed. That. Camera."

Kurama backed up slowly, "Rest assured, the camera that I had was completely destroyed. There would have been no photos to develop anyway because you took the film out of it, so the pictures would have been over exposed any way."

"Then. Why. Do. They. Have. Pictures?."

"I have no idea."

Suddenly, her attention was drawn to the pair of laughing boys. "Gee, Kuwabara, this one looks almost like you: ugly and stupid."

"Take that back Urameshi!" Kuwabara started to punch Yusuke. Ayame joined in, "Yeah, take that back you asshole!" Yusuke hauled his ass out of there and ran for his life. But he tripped over Tarukon's leg.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I in your way?" Tarukon smiled sweetly in Yusuke's direction while the spirit detective just glared at the other boy. Then everyone watched as the pictures, which had flown out of his hands, landed on the floor. There was a long pause, before Joe, Tarukon, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Ayame, Yukina, Botan, and Koenma all jumped in and reached for the pictures.

After a few minutes of madness, everyone realized that the pictures were not, in fact, on the person of anyone who was fighting for them. Then they noticed that Hiei had the pictures. He threw them into the air, and before anyone could catch them, he whipped out his katana and had sliced them into shreds.

Ayame sighed. "Well at least, those are gone." Then she noticed that Hiei was smirking. "What the hell?"

"Are you stupid as well as weak? You don't think that I would destroy all the photos, do you? This way, I have blackmail."

Before she had a chance to destroy the little midget, he blurred away. "Damn you, little fucking creep!" She stomped over to the sofa and sulked for a bit. Tarukon put an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. He's only joking. Besides, even if he did have photos, he'd have the wrong ones."

Ayame looked at him, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Tarukon smiled and pulled out a pack of pictures. "In the madness, I switched the pictures for ones of me at my graduation. So these are the ones that Yusuke and Kuwabara were originally looking at." Ayame grabbed for them but Tarukon held them over his head. "You can't reach them, can you, shorty?"

"Why I ought to—" but Yusuke grabbed the pictures and Tarukon ran after him, to get the pictures back. Ayame chased Tarukon and everyone sweat-dropped except for Kuwabara who had gotten trampled in the picture-madness and was asking Yukina to heal him.

Laotsu watched the people, especially Ayame as she tried to get them back from Yusuke. Closing the door, he walked out to Kurama's back yard. There, he raised his arm and Sani landed on it. 

"Well, Sani. I think our jobs are done here." The little dragon looked him in the eye. 

'I told you that it would work. And thank god, you got rid of that stupid, 'me no speak English' accent. It was driving me crazy.'

Laotsu grinned, "Being a little dragon hasn't changed you at all, has it, Sani?" 

'No, but I'll be glad when I can finally be myself again.' There was a flash of light and where an old man and a small dragon had stood, was sunlight. "They had finally left the earth. As their spirits traveled upward, a beautiful sun set in the distance. The adventure was over, the story was completed."

"Ogre! Stop playing with the narrating microphone, or I'll have you fired!"

"Yes Koenma sir! Just when I thought the job couldn't get any worse."

"I heard that Ogre!"

"Yes, Koenma sir!"

A/n: And that's it. Hope you enjoyed it. ~Killersmurf.


End file.
